Preview: The Cost of Dreams by Gary Stelzer

Book Stats:

Paperback: 296 pages

Publisher: Decent Hearts Press (October 1, 2009)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1936073005

ISBN-13: 978-1936073009

Genre: Thriller

About the Book:

Flora, a Mayan teenager, has escaped Talapa, her civil war-torn Central American village where her parents have been slain - and where even being seen in native wear could result in summary execution.

Following her dream with nearly superhuman determination, she makes her way to San Diego, and against all odds, becomes a wife, mother and teacher. By hard work and shrewdness, she even obtains legal U.S. status. But her life takes a horrific turn when she's shot by her drug-dealing brother in-law.  As she lays unconscious and bleeding in front of her house, Mexican immigrants traveling on a freight train kidnap and claim her as their daughter, caring for her on a long, grueling cross-country flight.

Nearly a year later, still gravely wounded and disfigured, a freed Flora arrives at the Lake Michigan home of Kate Bowman, an American aide worker who had previously befriended Flora in Talapa.  Kate's nephew had vanished on that mission, leaving Kate devastated and overwhelmed with guilt for permitting him to remain in a civil war ravaged Central America while she returned home.

Now Flora, eager to heal her injuries and desperate to restore what remains of her family, reignites in Kate a fire to learn the fate of her long lost nephew. The two women embark on a harrowing journey that takes them to the ancient caves of northwestern Mexico in the Barrancas del Cobre, an exceedingly vast abyss of canyons, in search of a storied Indian healer. The cost of healing borders on the unendurable.

With breathtaking suspense, pulse-pounding action and authentic Indian culture, THE COST OF DREAMS is peopled by fully realized characters facing overwhelming obstacles and moral dilemmas. In short, it's a riveting and believable first-rate thriller.

The First Book in a Series of Novels Dramatizing the Struggle of the Downtrodden.

Set against the vivid backdrop of a Central American country in turmoil and a desolate Mexican wilderness, THE COST OF DREAMS introduces a masterful new writer of fiction. Gary Stelzer, a retired Midwest physician, draws upon an ordeal of one of his most memorable patients for a novel that's both a powerful, compelling page-turner and a poignant illumination of a woman's-and a people's-struggle to survive.

"Years ago," recalls Stelzer, "a foreign-born woman appeared at the ER of my small city hospital dreadfully injured by her drug-dealing brother-in-law. She had been shot at her family's home in the southwestern U.S. and her husband had driven her and their two small children to this northern Midwest locale. There I cared for her and directed her protracted rehab. Then the husband abandoned them all.

"She drifted away in the years following. But I always recalled how badly I felt for her and her children. Then one day in southwestern New Mexico, I watched as dozens of freight trains passed by and I began asking myself, 'what if...?'"

Thus the indomitable Flora Enriquez came to life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Gary Stelzer wrote THE COST OF DREAMS while working full-time as a doctor. Now retired, he lives with his wife in the northern Midwest. The native Texan has studied Spanish and traveled to his novel's sites in Central America and Mexico and the USA. His intention in writing THE COST OF DREAMS, he says, was "to lend a voice to the struggle that the downtrodden of this earth make for a dignified and decent survival." His next several novels will adhere to this theme.
*Photo Credit: Barb Ray

Author’s web site - Here

This book was sent to Layers of Thought for review by Robyn Schechter from Carol Fass Publicity & Public Relations, Inc. Thank you Robyn!

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