The Recluse Storyteller Long Synopsis:
Red Hat hijacks a yoghurt truck and barrels into the Chester Walz Bank at full speed, desperate to open a safety deposit box.
The twins, beckoned by an ominous streak of light across the sky, climb Harper’s Hill to encounter an apparition of their missing father.
The reverend stands on a muddy ridge, the barrel of the rifle in his neck, looking down on a Vietnamese village, scarred by war and regret.
The stories come to Margaret at all times, but they are anything but random. A fractured view Michael Cheevers’ red hat through a discreetly cracked door sends her off on adventure. A glimpse of the Johnson twins from apartment 2D takes her to the lonely hill on a Midwestern prairie in 1887. The regular letters from Reverend Davies, who has tried to look after Margaret since the death of her mother, brings her to the brink of exhaustion, staring intensely into the heart of war deep in the jungle of Vietnam.
Margaret is not insane, at least not in a clinical sense. She’s like a midnight raccoon, painfully aware of her surroundings, gleaming crumbs of information at every turn; eyes peering incessantly in the night, stealing glances of neighbors behind partially opened doors.
But the tales that she weaves were not meant to merely hold empty court to the receptive dead air of her apartment. Her stories were meant to embolden the lives of the inhabitants of that drab apartment block because her story is also their story—and everything would be different if they could only hear her stories.
The Recluse Storyteller weaves five stories into one as the loner Margaret not only searches for meaning from her reclusive life, but also gives meaning in the most unexpected ways to the troubled souls of her apartment complex. Part adventure, part tragedy, and part discovery, The Recluse Storyteller bridges genres, bringing hope, life, and redemption to the broken relationships of modern society.
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About this author
Mark W. Sasse currently lives in Malaysia teaching drama and history. He lived in Vietnam for ten years which provided the rich background of modern day Vietnam in his first novel “Beauty Rising” released in December 2012. His second novel, “The Recluse Storyteller” will be released in October 2013. He just finished writing his third novel with a release date of 2014.
When he is not writing novels, his other passion comes out: live theater. He has published a series of plays of different genres including “Grandparents’ War”, “Spy Blue”, “Take Two: Who Directs Your Life”, and “Life with Stewart”. He also produced and directed all of these as original stage productions.
Sasse grew up in western Pennsylvania as…Mark W. Sasse currently lives in Malaysia teaching drama and history. He lived in Vietnam for ten years which provided the rich background of modern day Vietnam in his first novel “Beauty Rising” released in December 2012. His second novel, “The Recluse Storyteller” will be released in October 2013. He just finished writing his third novel with a release date of 2014.
When he is not writing novels, his other passion comes out: live theater. He has published a series of plays of different genres including “Grandparents’ War”, “Spy Blue”, “Take Two: Who Directs Your Life”, and “Life with Stewart”. He also produced and directed all of these as original stage productions.
Sasse grew up in western Pennsylvania as a huge baseball fan. He loves to cook and spend time with his family.
Mark W. Sasse is also the author of Beauty Rising & The Recluse Storyteller
(via goodreads)
My Review:
My dad used to say that his neighbors watched him. He was legally blind and I wonder what he would see if he watched his neighbors. I was his neighbor for the first year I got married, and he visited and knew when I was sick, etc. I would love to have Margaret tell a story about us, and it would be interesting. As was this book. I loved that Margaret was seen as eccentric and nutty. I want to meet her in real life. What her neighbors don't know is that their lives are intertwined with Margarets. As they started listening they started to realize that Margaret's words have a meaning. However are they willing to listen? I liked the end, and thought that it was fitting for a storyteller. I hoped that Margaret would not be a recluse any more, but you will have to read the book to find that out. I am giving this book a 5/5. The layering of stories was very well done. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own.
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