BRUISER is the story and the nickname of a nine-year-old boy living in a highly dysfunctional family in the 1970's (a bit like "The Ice Storm" on the Upper West Side) whose search for meaning and answers leads him to the open road and, eventually, the seeds of wisdom. Through the limitations of a young boy's awareness, we see the deteriorating marriage of his distant father and struggling mother, and the effects of their conflicts on Bruiser and his two older brothers. The disjunction between his literal misinterpretations, which often contain an emotional truth, and our adult understanding of the circumstances, creates the tension that runs throughout the novel.

Bruiser has a kindred spirit in Darla, the prococious daughter in an already broken home who lives across the alleyway. As the tension mounts in each household, Darla conceives of a plan for the two of them that takes Bruiser on the most frightening and illuminating journey of his life, and one that will have tragic consequences.