The Duty of Love280p, Outskirts Press, Isbn-1432712594
What Would You Do If...
You were a lovelorn wizard with a rat that lived in your hair (your trademark in the very competitive business of wizardry)? Would you turn it into a human to spy on the damsels for you? What if you were a little Princess, and no one would listen to you when you tried to warn them about the murderess who was trying to take over the kingdom? Would you go looking for the wizard of Fandon whom no one had ever seen, but had the best fireworks of all, and so, was surely the greatest of all the wizards? And if you were her brother, the Prince, would you try to rescue her from certain death?
What if you were a real life little girl, dying of a mysterious illness, and had an equally mysterious and deadly creature living in your closet? And what if you were her little brother? What would you promise the creature in return for saving the life of your sister?
The story starts with Father, a gifted storyteller, telling a fairy tale to his son, Charles, a troubled loner, and his daughter, Tanya, who is very, very ill. Each night Father tells more of the fairy tale, but later at night and during the day Charles and Tanya have real life problems of their own. Charles must fight his own descent into hellish darkness and Tanya must confront her coming death and the mysterious noises, scratches and bumps that echo every night from her closet.
The Duty of Love is about a girl who is dying physically and a boy who is dying spiritually. It's about rats that become humans and humans that become lizards. It's about a wizard who becomes wise and a wizard who tells lies. It's about well-meant little compromises that turn deadly, and heroic stands against all odds. It is also the story of a mysterious maiden, who is sure she knows the deepest and greatest secret of all. But most of all, it's about what it means to love and what it means to be human.
Ronald Neal Green is an authority on the psychological insights of fairy tales and a lifelong student of religion and mythic literature. Much like philosopher Eric Hoffer, who worked as a longshoreman in order to devote his mind fully to his theories, so too has Ronald Green chosen to drive a bus in Portland, Oregon, to pursue his fantasy writing career. His education includes broadcasting, theatre, and a stint in paranormal studies in Europe. He blends all these elements into The Duty of Love, a psychological, spiritual thriller. It is a book in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien that should appeal to all age groups and both religious and non-religious fantasy lovers. He addresses the issues of why we suffer, what can we do about it, what is death, what is love and, specifically, what is the duty of love?
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