The Old Man And The Little Leaf (ePub)

You like Harry Potter? Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier and magical fantasy fiction or sci-fi? You like Ray Bradbury and Aimee Bender? Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy?

Well then, you will love this book!

Written by Tara Smith, this is her first indie novel. Below is the synopsis of the story.

Synopsis:

The story starts with Mr T, the old man referenced in the title, grieving the loss of his wife of 40 years. The cremation as per Indian customs is over today, with the family gathered here at Mr T's house to share in his grief.

After a couple of weeks, all the family members have returned home. T is now alone in the rambling house with a lifetime of memories and an aching loneliness that grows by the day. Fortunately, he shakes himself out of his deepening gloom, and decides to go for a walk along the boardwalk near his house.

The gray world of Mr T is suddenly attacked full force by the life, energy and vitality on the boardwalk - the trees, the river, the breeze, the people and dogs and babies. But that is just the beginning. As T rests on a bench under the huge maple tree, a leaf drops on to T's lap - a talking, exuberant leaf called Little Leaf.

As the story unfolds, T's life has irrevocably changed with unusual friends that Little Leaf introduces him to. Every day is magical now with adventures into the Milky Way on a light beam, rides atop friendly eagles, visits to an underwater cave where Toxy the fox lives amidst unbelievable splendor and wealth, an unexpected plunge off the earth into the Great Pipeline below from where no one has ever returned. Many more thrills await T and his unusual friends as they move through their lives.

But there is also fear, humiliation and anxiety in store for T; his neighbor, the 12 year old bully Sammy, and his despicable talking parrot have targeted T with their venomous and foul energies.

This is a story of joy, and of the magic of life if one could only see. It is a story of helplessness and crushing loneliness giving way to life-giving, beautiful experiences. Also, it is a commentary on the deep wounds and scars that bullies inflict.

Fans of Anthony Doerr, Junot Diaz, Isabel Allende, Haruki Murakami, Erin Morgenstern, Neil Gaiman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Nikolai Gogol, Gunter Grass and other fabulous magical realism and fantasy writers will love this book!