| |
NewswireTODAY - /newswire/ -
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 2011/11/23 - R. L. Prendergast – bestselling author of “The Impact of a Single Event” – has come out with a new novel that incorporates the crucial issues of the Great Depression: poverty, unemployment, drought and racism.
|
| |
It’s been 82 years since the start of the Great Depression. A time when children ate on alternate days so their siblings could have a meal; when there was no such thing as unemployment insurance, welfare or food banks; and when, if a man couldn’t find work, his family would starve.
R. L. Prendergast – bestselling author of “The Impact of a Single Event” – has come out with a new novel that captures this tragic time. “Dinner with Lisa” is the story of Joseph Gaston, a young widower with four children. Joseph arrives in the small town of Philibuster seeking security for his family. Instead, he faces barriers everywhere. He does his best despite great adversity, but the strain of feeding and protecting his family whittles away his strength. Finally, destitution forces him to consider giving up his children in order to save them. Enraged by his situation, he attempts one last desperate act—on the night he learns about the mysterious Lisa.
Heart wrenching, humorous and historically authentic,“Dinner with Lisa” incorporates the crucial issues of the depression: poverty, unemployment, drought and racism. In the midst of love and loyalty, trickery and despair, the ultimate message of the novel is one of hope and the courage to survive even the worst odds.
“Dinner with Lisa” is based partly on the stories of the author’s own family.
“Have you ever wished you’d written down the stories told you by your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles?” Prendergast asks. “I know I do. For years I listened to my relatives recounting their childhoods, and talking of the unusual characters they’d known. People who did crazy things, and had nicknames like Hateful Dan, The Black Prince and Dumb Dora.”
“As a child, I enjoyed these anecdotes immensely,” Prendergast continues,“but didn’t think about them after they’d been told. However, as I got older, and the various relatives, including my grandparents, passed away, I wished someone had recorded their stories. Not long ago, I began asking my mother and father about some of the tales my grandparents used to tell. They remembered some details, but many of the stories had been forgotten – lost forever.”
After completing his first novel, Prendergast began to write down the recollections of his parents and their older siblings, all now in their seventies and eighties. As the cache of tales grew – a great uncle’s experience in WW1, his mother’s memories of the neighbourhood corner store, his father’s memories of life on a dairy farm – he saw a connecting thread. Before long, he was researching the time periods in which the stories took place – and was inspired to write “Dinner with Lisa.”
“Dinner with Lisa” is available through major bookstore chains throughout Canada and the United States. It will be available electronically in December of this year.
Up-to-date information about the book and the author can be found at RLPrendergast.com and on Facebook – search R.L. Prendergast or go straight to facebook.com/r.l.prendergast to view the fan page.
About Rod Prendergast
R. L. (Rod) Prendergast was the entrepreneurial kid you saw on your neighbourhood street selling lemonade on a hot summer's day. Recognizing young Rod's preoccupation with money, his mother bribed him to read with an offer of 25 cents per book—and instilled in him a lifelong love of reading. Although he continued down the path of industry—he started and sold his first business before completing his Bachelor of Commerce—he continued to read voraciously. After a number of years working in sales, marketing and management for several companies he spent a year's sabbatical surfing and reading in New Zealand and, free of business pressures, he began to write. Those first words became the backbone of The Impact of a Single Event—which was long listed for the Independent Publishers Book Award for literary fiction, and which became a national bestseller in Canada. Spurred on by the success of his first novel, he took another sabbatical and wrote Dinner with Lisa. He is currently working on his next book.
|
Rod[.]RLPrendergast.com 
