The Atheist and the Parrotfish
by Dr. Richard Barager, MD
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Pub Date May 08 2017 | Archive Date May 27 2017
Description
Doctors tend to the needs of their patients, but patients give meaning to the lives of their doctors. So it is for Cullen Brodie, a twice-divorced California nephrologist, and Ennis Willoughby, a troubled cross-dresser whose life is saved by a rare heart-and-kidney transplant.
Cullen’s bitter disbelief in the afterlife is tested when Ennis begins to exhibit tastes and characteristics uncannily similar to those of his female organ donor—whose first name Ennis inexplicably knows. When Ennis becomes convinced that the donor’s soul has inhabited him, Cullen sides with Ennis’s psychiatrist, who tells Ennis he has subconsciously confused his emerging transgender personality with the imagined characteristics of his female donor.
While his psychiatrist coaxes forth Ennis’s female side, Cullen is summoned to the South Pacific by an old lover for a reckoning of their past. On the island paradise of Rarotonga, he is forced to confront the heartrending truth about a tragedy that destroyed their college romance—a tragedy Cullen blames on religious zealotry.
Filled with resentment over what he has learned, Cullen returns to Southern California determined to shatter Ennis’s delusion of ensoulment. But Ennis’s eerie knowledge of his donor’s greatest secret forces Cullen to consider the unimaginable: Is it possible he is witness to a verifiable incident of transmigration, tangible proof of a human soul? Or is he witness instead to the miracle of being transgender? Male and female at once, the glory of one and the glory of the other, both shining—like a parrotfish, another miracle of nature, changing gender apace, beside its glorious, ever-changing hue.
A Note From the Publisher
Author is available for interviews, blog tours, autographed tours, autographed book giveaways, contests, and book club discussions.
Advance Praise
· "The Atheist and the Parrotfish offers a thought-provoking story that challenges both one's intellect and one's heart, exploring health and sickness, faith and atheism, and love and betrayal...The book is one the reader will long remember and ponder."---IndieReader
· "One striking aspect of Richard Barager's novel is its delicate ability to weave medical intrigue with the tone of a Robin Cook thriller into the bigger picture of social and religious inspection...Those who enjoy a mix of medical thriller, social inspection, and an ethical and moral conundrum will find that The Atheist and the Parrotfish pairs all these elements with powerful psychological insights that lead readers to become unexpectedly moved..."---Midwest Book Review
· "Barager hits the bull's-eye...this well-written, gripping book is a deep dive into some intriguing questions...readers will be left wondering what their own stance is."---US Review of Books
· "Barager's exploration of human relationships, beliefs, and compulsions...culminates clearly with a conclusion highly satisfactory to the reader."---Readers' Favorite
· "A fascinating story...replete with complex characters and riveting pages...a thought-provoking top-of-the-line read."---Chanticleer Reviews
· "The book is well written, the characters well developed and the plot complex and interwoven to a delicious degree. It is a great read and helps the reader confront their own spirituality and their own identity...---BestSellersWorld
Marketing Plan
About the Author:
By day, I'm a nephrologist, treating dialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients. By night, I write fiction. I believe the two finest callings in life are doctor and writer, one ministering to the human condition, the other illuminating it, each capable of transforming it.
I earned BA and MD degrees at the University of Minnesota and completed postgraduate training at Emory University in Atlanta and the University of California in San Diego. I live in Orange County, CA.
I am a champion of the healing power of literature. Fiction explores meaning in a way science cannot. Sometimes only fiction tells the truth.
For more information, visit www.richardbarager.com.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781622530410 |
| PRICE | $16.95 (USD) |
