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Formats
Paperback Details
  • 09/2023
  • 979-8-9858078-1-3 B0CJT2Z4MB
  • 156 pages
  • $6.99
Ebook Details
  • 09/2023
  • B0CJTGJDWR
  • 178 pages
  • $2.99
Greg Treakle
Author
Two Dreams & Other Tales
Greg Treakle, author

Adult; General Fiction (including literary and historical); (Market)

Five modern family tales of personal loss, redemption, dreams, betrayal, forgiveness, reconciliation, self-discovery, and faith. A young Texan returns home after fourteen years in exile, seeking redemption and clues to the fate of his missing family … An Atlanta man nervously undergoes a change of career, looking to fulfill his father’s greatest dream … A sixteen-year-old orphan sets out on an ill-fated hunting expedition with the grandfather who has shunned him his whole life … Two brothers adjust to the death of their Marine father in Beirut while coming of age at an Ohio boy’s summer camp … A boy grows up anxiously pondering the fate of his father, a World War II airman missing in action.
Reviews
This serene short story collection from Treakle (author of Return to the Lion’s Den) hints at optimism in the face of life’s many tragedies while mourning the changes wrought by the passage of time. “Three Days at Sunset” finds a mother sending her 11-year-old son to summer camp—with his elder brother as protector—in hopes that he will learn to accept the death of his father, killed in action in Lebanon. Camp produces a transformation, but one that is much different than expected, bringing both mother and son full circle in an eerie parallel—and prompting the older brother to reflect on the family’s “cycle of pride, worry, and grief.”

In the emotional “Passing Through,” a man returns to his childhood home, where he was wrongly convicted of a heinous crime 14 years earlier. As he ruminates on the events of his past, and searches for answers on his family’s whereabouts, he comes to terms with the transformations wrought through his time in prison, resolving that his “anger was just too heavy to carry”—and loses himself in grief, only to discover happiness on the other side. That sense of renewal surfaces throughout the collection, as Treakle takes his characters through intense experiences that both destroy and restore. In the title story, a devastating health development reunites a father and son, sparking dramatic endings—and new beginnings—while “My Father’s Promise” centers on a “sacred promise” a military dad makes to his son—and the surprising way he keeps it.

Treakle’s relaxed style evokes tranquility with stories that, despite some darkness lurking beneath the surface, retain a sense of purity and innocence. Immense timelines are traversed throughout, often entire lifetimes, but always with an eye for rebirth, as Treakle surveys our inner need for love in each offering—and probes what it really means to belong.

Takeaway: Serene collection that centers on rebirth after tragedy.

Comparable Titles: Temsula Ao’s The Tombstone in My Garden, Alexander McCall Smith’s The Private Life of Spies and the Exquisite Art of Getting Even.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B+

Formats
Paperback Details
  • 09/2023
  • 979-8-9858078-1-3 B0CJT2Z4MB
  • 156 pages
  • $6.99
Ebook Details
  • 09/2023
  • B0CJTGJDWR
  • 178 pages
  • $2.99
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