FICTION
Pearls in the Ashes
Rooted in the history of Mongolia’s Buddhist monks, this is the story of Dash, a young herder who has entered the Khovor Khan monastery at his father’s insistence, to formalize his education and escape the crushing poverty of nomadic life.
Dash’s uncertain commitment to The Path is sorely tested when The People’s Party destroys his monastery as part of a violent offensive against Buddhism. As the sole survivor of the bloody purge, Dash must find his way in a suddenly secular country that is itself struggling with modernization.
Pearls in the Ashes is an inspired story chronicling a half-century test of the power of faith, and of the human heart’s ability to survive amidst the terrors of political repression.
Stalled artist Sarah, seeking to recover from a failed romance and a dried-up muse, moves to her grandmother’s old house in the Italian countryside for a fresh start. At first it seems like the perfect place to get back on track, but the place soon feels less than peaceful. The past infiltrates the present as strange dreams of love and loss wind their way into Sarah’s consciousness. Their echoes of a tragic affair, not hers and decades gone, colour her own struggle to regain her sense of direction in art, love and life.
The search for hearth and home frame this sensual and evocative story of amore revealed.
