A recently widowed Canadian school teacher has come to the small island of St. Georges in search of healing. An impoverished Haitian laborer is shipwrecked off St.Georges and struggles to survive in a hostile environment. Their lives become intertwined as they both care for a woman dying of AIDS. The unfolding drama takes the reader on a journey through the sweeping landscape of Haiti and probes the quiet recesses of the soul, provoking the reader to examine his own response to the human condition.
This novel exposes the divisions caused by race and socio-economic circumstances and explores the ability of the human spirit to bridge the divide.The story chronicles the struggle of ordinary people and their response to the inequities around them.It is set on a colorful fictitious Caribbean island with all its idiosyncrasies and inherent contradictions.
Excerpt
Josef sat at mid-ship, crammed between
two large, powerful looking males and
three women that looked to be in their
twenties. Smooth-skinned, high-cheek-
boned, good-looking women, with eyes
filled with a mixture of fear, hope and
resilience. One of them looked pregnant.
Down in the hold were twenty other
souls who had desperately committed
their life savings to the captain. A fellow Haitian, he traded in dreams that had slim chance of being realized.
The forty-foot sloop lumbered through the sea. Its clinker-built hull, aged and barely sea- worthy, creaked and groaned with the strain of its human cargo. Josef had brought enough food for four days, but the winds had been unfavorable and the seas high. They were now more than six days at sea. Josef was feeling nauseous and thirsty. He was well used to hunger, but the combination of sea spray and constant rocking was starting to make him
feel disoriented. Suddenly he heard the
triumphant cheer of one of the
passengers. "La terre, Miami!"
A wave of expectation moved through
the passengers and many who had
retreated down into the hold came out to
witness their deliverance.They watched
and cheered as a group of low-lying
islands came into focus.
But the cheers of exultation were quickly quenched by the captain who had spotted a marine patrol boat about three miles off starboard. He ordered everyone who could fit into the hold to retreat out of sight and continued his course towards the islands. The deep blue shortly gave way to the aquamarine of shallower waters and approaching reefs.
SURGICALLY RE-WRITTEN and CONDENSED Feb-May 2013... A MONUMENTAL JOURNEY is an adventure mystery historical fiction novel that follows a young mans journey (with friends) to find Truth, happiness, purpose, and a long lost Norse tribe.
Admiral Robert Sheppard and his starship, the Phoenix, are back for their latest interplanetary adventure. Mysteries, new alien civilizations, and danger await the intrepid Star Knight and his loyal allies.
