Shadows From The Sun

About the Book

Ryan Farraday and his mining crew discover a group of Indigenous people living faultless lives in the mountains of British Columbia. Ryan is suspicious of a culture that trusts so carelessly and loves so completely, but in this present-day Eden, the rivers run with gold-and he takes full advantage. Soon the crew and this Native community influence each other with tragic results. Elizabeth Malone demonstrates the madness of bigotry by hating the people's colorless skin. The Natives, in turn, encounter fear and racial hostility, tensions they'd never imagined. Meanwhile, a killer emerges where no one has murdered before. Ryan realizes his group's worldly presence has endangered their paradise and threatens Lunara above all, the Native woman whose innocence has won his heart. He must now test the measure of his own morality: either escape with his crew and the gold they've collected, or sacrifice his own life to save Lunara and the values he knows she would willingly die for.

About the Author :
John Gargrave's passions in life surfaced early. The first birthday wish he can remember was for a tricycle and a pen. Traveling and writing were already hard-wired in his soul. A fantasy story written at the age of six was dismissed by his teacher because she thought he had copied it from a children's book. It was, in fact, a John original.At the age of seven, John and his family emigrated from England to Canada. Following a brief attempt at living in California, the Gargraves finally settled in Toronto where he completed his education with an honors BA at the University of Toronto. Even there, John's penchant for roaming showed itself. Two years after enrolling in an English Language and Literature program, he jumped to a curriculum in Classics (Greek, Latin, classical history and philosophy) because it offered more of a challenge. Perhaps Homer's Odyssey inspired his move.He "kept scribbling" as he entered the adult world, holding a variety of managerial positions in manufacturing, as well as importing and exporting, before owning a number of rental properties. At one point, he took a year-long sabbatical through Europe to absorb the various cultures, languages and experiences, seeds for his continued writing. Finally a lengthy stint of conducting coach and rail tours through Europe and Canada consolidated his literary direction.John is now able to concentrate wholly on his novels and short stories. He spends his time between Toronto, Ontario and Knoxville, Tennessee, because his partner, a southern gal, is allergic to Canadian winters.

Review :

"I have lost count of the number of novels that try to elevate their status by calling themselves literary fiction, but Shadows from the Sun by John Gargrave is almost a textbook definition of what good literary fiction actually is ... Gargrave delivers the goods in an exceptional body of work. Very highly recommended." *****

Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

Comparisons with 'Heart of Darkness' or 'Lost Horizon' are inevitable. Take this book to the beach and consume it with a chilled bottle of Chardonnay. It will make a great summer read. Then ... read it for a second time, luxuriating in the allegory, the complex characters and the well-crafted sentences. It will be well worth it. *****

R.D. Johnston

A rip roaring pot boiler with riveting plot twists ... an epic narrative firmly rooted in the mythic ... grapples with the eternal questions of innocence and its loss ... evoking a narrative of epic scale. *****

Kenneth I. Watts