A book published this fall details the journey of a Suffolk native from one of the city’s roughest neighborhoods to the opera stage.

The story of Ryan Speedo Green, who currently is performing as Colline in “La Boheme” at the Metropolitan Opera, is told by Daniel Bergner in the book “Sing for Your Life: A Story of Race, Music and Family.”

“It’s a story about Ryan’s sheer will,” Bergner said recently.

Green’s rise has indeed been remarkable. Green was the child of divorced parents, placed in a special class for the school division’s worst-behaved children, sent to Virginia’s most notorious juvenile detention facility, and living as an adolescent in Suffolk across from the headquarters of a drug dealing operation.

But he found his voice singing opera music and ignored the other teens on the bus, who spread the word he was a snitch, snatched an opera score he was studying from his hands and called it “white people music.”

“That was not an easy place to live,” Bergner said.

Green’s mother moved the family a lot after the divorce, living in a number of different jurisdictions in Hampton Roads before landing in Suffolk. One elementary school teacher in Yorktown called him, in the book, “one of the 10 or so most troubled children I’ve had in my 42-year career.”

It was in Yorktown that Green was placed into a special class, with a teacher named Mrs. Hughes who refused to believe her students were bad and taught them Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. She wanted them to learn they could control the contents of their characters.

“Mrs. Hughes never gave up on him, no matter how many outbursts — verbal, violent — that he had,” Bergner said.

The teachers who sparked and nurtured Green’s interest in opera also feature prominently in the book.

“It’s also a story about these very inspiring teachers,” Bergner said.

Bergner, a writer for the New York Times Magazine, met Green when he did a story about the Metropolitan Opera’s annual contest to find the best young opera singers in America. The two met when Green was about to sing in the semifinal round.

It was slow going at first.

“He was in no way eager for the attention of the New York Times Magazine,” Bergner said. “Many semifinalists were happy to get that attention. He made himself very scarce. We got to know each other very slowly.”

The idea for the book grew slowly out of an article Bergner wrote for the magazine, focusing on Green.

“At the time, we had no sense his story would go as well as it has gone,” Bergner said. “Had the whole thing just ended there, and his career didn’t continue to rise, it would have been an amazing story. But it got more amazing as the years went on.”

In 2014, Green won the prestigious George London Foundation competition at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. He made his debut at the Met in the 2012-2013 season, singing the Mandarin in “Turandot” and the Second Knight in “Parsifal.” He also has made debuts with Utah Opera, singing Don Basilio in “The Barber of Seville,” and has roles in “Madama Butterfly” and “Tosca.” He also performed at Carnegie Hall singing “The Messiah” with the St. Cecilia Choir and Orchestra.

The New York Times has called Green a “showstopper.” And yet he likely hasn’t even reached his full potential.

“He won’t attain his potential probably until his mid-40s,” Bergner said. “He’s 30.”

Green credits his success to the Governor’s School for the Arts, which he attended alongside Lakeland High School. He graduated in 2004.

In 2014, Green named Alan Fischer, chair of the school’s vocal music department, and the late Robert Brown, his first voice teacher, as particular influences.

Bergner said he hopes people will read the book to gain inspiration.

“This is just an incredible transformation that he’s carried out,” Bergner said.

The book is available from online booksellers, including Amazon.