SIGN OF JONAH

The unnamed protagonist in this fast-paced, autofictional Bildungsroman experiences a memorial journey through touchstones in his life after suffering a debilitating heart attack. Moving in and out of illusion and reality, on this reflective adventure he encounters seminal events, unusual personalities, and disturbing ghosts that help define his essence and that take him from humble origins through precarious childhood, vexing adolescence, exceptional education, troubled family life, and successful professional career. In a sweeping panorama, his story moves from the American South, to the Midwest, to the Southwest, to Europe, and back to the East Coast. Ultimately humbled by the acute awareness of his own mortality, in a scintillating meditation he comes to see his life epitomized in the woe and wonder of Job and the miraculous salvation of Jonah.