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A very good friend has just stepped from the halls of nonfiction and short pieces to her first novel, from Chanter Press in the Texas hill country. It's a story about fathers, daughters and sons, and how two strangers discover that although their fathers had secrets that they told to no one, sometimes a trail of clues will lead to the truth.
I recommend it. Anyone who likes WWII stories will probably love this book. Cheryl has a gift for just the right phrase, and tells a story that brings truth and new beginnings from mistakes and heartbreak. We have a WWII German solder, a late 20th century Air Force Colonel, and a young woman who is both observant and loves a father she never really understood. This will make a great gift.
Here's from the launch party at Facebook:
AVAILABLE BEGINNING JULY 4, 2009 FOR $12.00 (+s&h) FROM:
Chanter Press
Lulu.com
COVER COPY:
"Lives are often stories not yet written down. Not always ended, either, which can fuse the living and telling into a path not always clear. Some tales take a long time to tell, especially when they start in 1944 and flow into 1996, and the characters weave in and out across those years without knowing one another.
Retired Colonel Matthew Rankin’s sudden death at a party in 1996 leaves a gap in many lives. Deepest, perhaps, in that of his daughter, Manda, whose grief is overwhelming as she realizes how little she knows of who her father was. His strict and formal way kept Matthew at odds with his daughter.
The coincidental arrival of Pieter Becker, a man following a just-found trace of his own father’s World War II disappearance, sets the two of them in motion to solve the puzzle of their fathers’ connection. At first, the only clue they have is a photo taken of the two men together in Grand Central Station in 1975 by Willi Prang, a garrulous former WWII POW who says he knew Pieter’s father.
In 1975, Matthew Rankin was an on-the-rise Colonel in the United States Air Force, successful and devoted to doing the Pentagon’s bidding.
The other man in the photograph is Pieter’s father, Franz Becker, according to Willi Prang, whom Pieter meets at a reunion of ex-German POW’s.
But Pieter’s father died in World War II.
Or did he?"
I recommend it. Anyone who likes WWII stories will probably love this book. Cheryl has a gift for just the right phrase, and tells a story that brings truth and new beginnings from mistakes and heartbreak. We have a WWII German solder, a late 20th century Air Force Colonel, and a young woman who is both observant and loves a father she never really understood. This will make a great gift.
Here's from the launch party at Facebook:
AVAILABLE BEGINNING JULY 4, 2009 FOR $12.00 (+s&h) FROM:
Chanter Press
Lulu.com
COVER COPY:
"Lives are often stories not yet written down. Not always ended, either, which can fuse the living and telling into a path not always clear. Some tales take a long time to tell, especially when they start in 1944 and flow into 1996, and the characters weave in and out across those years without knowing one another.
Retired Colonel Matthew Rankin’s sudden death at a party in 1996 leaves a gap in many lives. Deepest, perhaps, in that of his daughter, Manda, whose grief is overwhelming as she realizes how little she knows of who her father was. His strict and formal way kept Matthew at odds with his daughter.
The coincidental arrival of Pieter Becker, a man following a just-found trace of his own father’s World War II disappearance, sets the two of them in motion to solve the puzzle of their fathers’ connection. At first, the only clue they have is a photo taken of the two men together in Grand Central Station in 1975 by Willi Prang, a garrulous former WWII POW who says he knew Pieter’s father.
In 1975, Matthew Rankin was an on-the-rise Colonel in the United States Air Force, successful and devoted to doing the Pentagon’s bidding.
The other man in the photograph is Pieter’s father, Franz Becker, according to Willi Prang, whom Pieter meets at a reunion of ex-German POW’s.
But Pieter’s father died in World War II.
Or did he?"
