COBBLED LIFE by HM FLATH
I published my first novel, Cobbled Life, in April, 2013 much to my own surprise as there were many times that I felt I would not get it all together. However, I did and, for me, there is a matter of personal pride in that accomplishment.
Cobbled Life is available in many places:
Trafford Publishing.com
Barnes and Nobel.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Kobo.com
Kindle.com
Cobbled Life, begins with Otto, a young man living with his family in a small village situated a few miles from Piotrikow, Poland, from where he is conscripted into Tsar Nicholas II’s army in 1908. From there, events over which he has little control, take him on his life’s journey to St. Petersburg, Russia, through battles in Galicia and eventually to the windswept Saskatchewan prairies. He finds love, experiences adventure, encounters loneliness, undergoes tragedy, and continues to hope for a better life. Cobbled Life is a story of the many challenges and struggles he confronts as he adapts and adjusts to the constantly changing economic conditions, language, ethnicity, cultural and social structure in which he becomes caught. His story is similar to those of thousands of young men and their families who, caught up in the social upheaval and turmoil of Eastern Europe during the early 1900s, found themselves pulling up their roots and transplanting them in the vast open prairies of the West.
Cobbled Life will appeal to many. The older generation will relate to much of the story identifying and paralleling their own family and life experiences. For the younger generation, many will look upon the story and come to wonder, “Can this really be true?”
I spent a great deal of time researching ……… days, weeks, months and even years ……………… ensuring the accuracy of details. I loved doing the research and I would get so caught up in it that often days and weeks would go by without having written anything down. It was truly a learning experience for me. In the book, by providing details of, for example, St. Petersburg, the battles in Galacia during WWI, the immigration process, the immigrant ships and trains to the west, the cost of a pork roast in 1937, my intention for the reader was to expand ones own knowledge of life during that time and place. Many of the incidents in the story are based on actual fact but could be exaggerated, altered, embellished………….. who knows? Much of the lore I can recall from my parents and grandfather telling stories in casual conversations and in making off-handed remarks.
The book makes an excellent choice for a Book Club and I am always available for a SKYPE conference to interact with the readers and answer questions. I try to make myself available and please do contact me if you have any questions. Just go to the ‘contact me’ link and leave me a message or leave me a message below.
Thank you for visiting and I hope you will read the information on my links and take time to read Cobbled Life. I would love your feedback. Please leave your email address and name behind.
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