When grumpy 75 year old Charlie Messina wakes from a coma after a cardiac event on Cape Cod, he is told that he was only unconscious for a few days. However, Charlie knows he has spent the last several months living through a parallel life that lies ahead of him. Which includes a personal tragedy, an unlikely awkward friendship with two local boys, and a road trip with his playboy best friend from college and a dog that no else sees (except the children). When he shares his story about the life he lived, his wife and grown sons think he’s crazy. He then realizes he must play along with his family—and the geriatric psychiatrist—or they’ll be convinced he’s suffering dementia and will put him into a home for “dribblers and droolers.”
Steve Lewis is a former Mentor at SUNY-Empire State College, longtime member of the Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute faculty, and longtime freelancer and editor. His work has been published widely, from the notable to the beyond obscure, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, Redbook, Commonweal, Ploughshares, Narratively, Spirituality & Health, Road Apple Review, The Rosicrucian Digest, and a biblically long list of parenting publications (7 kids, 17 grandkids). He is also Senior Editor/Literary Ombudsman for the spoken word venue Writers Read. His extensive book list includes Zen and the Art of Fatherhood, Fear and Loathing of Boca Raton, If I Die Before You Wake (poems), and the novels Take This, Loving Violet, A Hard Rain, and The Lights Around the Shore (Codhill Press). A poetry collection, Fire in Paradise, co-authored with Elizabeth Bayou-Funk, was published in July 2022 by Codhill.
Paperback
Page count: 238
Trim size: 4.5 x 7.5 in.
ISBN: 978-1-949933-23-9
