Summer Snow - Reviews
Our world today is stressful, confusing, and chaotic. Modern power mongers haggle, buy, and sell violence and death on a daily basis. No country on earth is exempt from such destruction. Our minds and spirits are overwhelmed, craving peaceful havens from the turmoil. Summer Snow is a beautifully written fictional story about one American who found that elusive peace. William Hathaway's exceptional writing style makes this novel a stand out. The harm we do others always comes back to us. No one understands that cosmic law better than Jeff Madsen. Madsen is a fiftyish military veteran whose tour in Vietnam is long past but still stirs the warrior in him and haunts his memory. His marriage has failed and his position as U.S. State Department Foreign Aid officer is less than satisfying. In Kyrgyzstan, he battles alcoholism and boredom with meaningless diplomatic functions and one night stands. His job is a balancing act, placating the Russian and Kyrgyz military while trying not to offend Muslim potentates. When terrorists steal a weapon of mass destruction, Jeff's warrior instincts resurface. Cholpon is a Sufi sister in her mid thirties. This gentle group of Sufi women live in a remote mountainous area of Kyrgyzstan and have survived communism and Muslim mullahs who despise them. For fifteen years Cholpon has grown in spirit and power. From Djamila, the Sufi leader, she's learned to harness transcendental meditation and astral channeling to strengthen her chakras. Cholpon meets her karma head on in the person of Jeff Madsen, who shows up on her doorstep singed and bleeding from a terrorist attack nearby. Cholpon heals him metaphysically, and soon she becomes a loving spark of life to a heart Jeff thought was dead. Visiting Cholpon's mountain home clears Jeff's mind and heals his spirit. No longer a human predator, he knows the Sufi way of harmony and peace may be the only chance Earth has of surviving endless war. When Cholpon and her gentle sisters locate the stolen atomic warhead, Jeff fears for their survival. Will the Sufi's peaceful interventions or man's warring nature save millions from destruction? Hathaway skillfully weaves a touching love story into this modern day adventure thriller. Sufi mystics, militant terrorists, and atavistic men of every nationality come together in surprising ways. Summer Snow is a true picture of the world we live in as it is, and as it could be if lasting love and peace were possible. Laurel Johnson, writer and reviewer |