A kid from Boston's ghetto becomes a neurosurgeon. His ancestors insist he avenge centuries of pain with a life of infinite success. But he and his elite education find their way to an unlikely destination, where he wrestles with his history and the armored identity it has imposed. Steep is long on resilience, short of villains and victims. The author works to befriend that history and so to blunt its power. He examines the price-and the value-of success. His story will resonate with anyone who's run from their past, anyone whose world feels too small.