Strides Between Us

by Marc Cianfarani

For more than thirty years, I worked advocating for injured workers. I sat across from people whose injuries never fully healed whose pain lingered long after decisions were made and files were closed…

At the same time, I’ve always been a runner. Not an elite one just committed. The kind who keeps showing up…

I’m also a father. When my daughter was younger, we had our daddy–daughter days. Small things. Ordinary things…

And then there’s Dolce, my whippet. Watching her run is watching motion without doubt…

I also spent many years involved in youth sports, from soccer to being part of the coaching group during my son’s minor hockey years…

Somewhere along the way, all of this converged.

The injured workers.
The runner who keeps trying.
The father who understands how love anchors you.
The coach who has seen how mentorship changes young lives.
The dog who reminds me what unburdened motion truly looks like.

Strides Between Us grew out of that intersection.

This story isn’t about winning races. It’s about what happens when motion is taken away and what it costs to find your way back.

294 pages, Paperback

Published April 18, 2026

About the author

Marc Cianfarani is a Canadian writer whose work blends emotional depth, quiet resilience, and a deep curiosity about the lives we carry beneath the surface. For more than thirty years, Marc worked as an advocate reviewing medical evidence and supporting individuals through some of the most difficult chapters of their lives. Those decades of listening to stories of loss, hope, and second chances shaped both his worldview and his writing.

His debut novel, Strides Between Us, grew from a simple image that stayed with him: a man standing alone with a pair of running shoes, caught between who he was and who he might become again. As Marc wrote the book, he found himself immersed in Jake’s journey, often experiencing the emotional beats as if he were living them alongside his character. That process, exhausting at times, exhilarating at others formed the heart of the story: the quiet, human moments where identity is rebuilt one small choice at a time.

Marc is deeply interested in the psychology of resilience, the way memory shapes who we become, and the unspoken burdens many people carry without recognition. His writing aims to give voice to those experiences and to remind readers that any of us can find ourselves standing at a crossroads, one misfortune away from becoming the “Jake” in our own lives.

When he’s not writing, Marc can often be found on the trails around Toronto, reflecting, reading, or walking with his whippet, Dolce who inspired one of the novel’s most beloved scenes.

Strides Between Us is his first novel.