As the Leaves Kiss the Stream
ISBN-13: 978-1632132505
Print $10.99
Ebook $4.99
August 2016
eLectio Publishing
Family drama
novella
... a story about a father and his seventeen-year-old
daughter. He is a missionary; she is a problem.
Together they go camping and fly fishing in the Ozarks.
Together they clash and argue.
Then one cold, October morning as they fly fished beside the
pure water of the stream, together they learned something about grace.
For the tears of a father ... are as the tears of God ...
that fall silently and caress the one beloved, much as the autumn leaves that
gently fall and kiss the stream.
MY REVIEW
As the Leaves Kiss the Stream is a beautiful, poignant
novel, a vignette of a three-day battle culminating a lifetime of passing in the
night. The combatants have only words, memories, and perceptions for weapons.
There is blood, tears, a baptism and the promise of rebirth. And fly fishing.
If missions begin at home, Elijah Gamble missed the boat. He’ll
be the first one to admit it, once he learns how truly deep the home field and
Kenya divide had grown. Elijah and Evelyn, his wife, did the best they could
with their only child, daughter, Erin, to provide the safest and best education
while in Africa. This is the part of the story that reveals how parenting can
go so very wrong—not for lack of love or good skills, but for doing the best a
parent can in a situation where that will never work out the way it should. The
story reminded me of my family in a similar situation, but without the fallout.
At his wits end, Elijah takes his daughter on a camping trip
to get her away from her volatile mother. The reader winces throughout his
truthful inner monolog and Erin’s harsh, self-condemnation, through soaking,
cold, stormy nights and days, fried trout & potatoes, caddis flies &
confessions. Somewhere during these stubborn days comes the revelation of
emotion and spiritual abuse from a wrongly trusted place, a deep-seated sense
of abandonment. Elijah comes to grip with his call to serve God in a way he
couldn’t hear while serving as an alien in a foreign land.
Told in first person from the father’s point of view, with
flash forwards and real-time memories of past events, readers who appreciate
and explore family drama in novella—short book—form will be touched by this lovely,
thoughtful story. Hope, faith, and love…yes, these three remain.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terry Barnes won the 2005 Christian Writers Guild Operation
First Novel contest for his first novel, In Everything Give Thanks. His second
novel, Whispered to the Heart, also explores the fundamental questions of life
and faith. His latest novella, As the Leaves Kiss the Stream, is a story of
conflict and grace between a father and his seventeen-year-old daughter, in the
context of fly fishing in the Ozarks.
His writing shows the quest for meaning in the swirl of life, a struggle common
to humanity. As for literature, its purpose is to illustrate truth with such
words that will capture the heart and soul of the reader.
Terry is also an online adjunct professor of religion for several major
universities. His website is http://terrybarnes.us.
Sounds like Terry's written a wonderful, heart-wrenching story. And it includes fly-fishing. Not too many stories about that. Except A River Runs Through comes to mind. Family, struggles, faith. I wish the best of success to you, Terry. Thanks for showcasing his novel, Lisa.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of those gems...a really fine story and i was honored to read it.
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