eLIAM

                                                    Eliam is a luminous tale of wonder, initiation, and remembrance.

From childhood, Eliam hears the forest whisper his name. Guided by beings of wisdom, mischief, truth, and stillness, he discovers that his journey leads not only through the wildwood, but inward - into the deeper memory of who he is. As ancestral voices rise and the fire at creation’s heart calls him forward, Eliam awakens to a truth long carried within: he is not seeking a story; he is the story becoming. Blending myth and parable, Eliam invites readers of all ages to follow the quiet tug of the unseen and remember what they have always known.

This book is a short story about a quiet young man who is one with nature, who is often alone without being lonely. His nearly telepathic relationship with nature allows his understanding that there is knowledge beyond what is readily observed and acknowledged by most humans. It exists in the ethereal, in the animals of the forest, and the ancestral voices of those who have preceded Eliam on their own quest of self discovery. The book is about Eliam’s journey to a deeper understanding of those who came before him, and of his own place in the world. I found the story engrossing and enlightening. For those who look inward for their own truth, and also to the infinite cosmos and beyond to what might also be. 

If you were to cross paths with "Eliam" author Edward Paul Fry, a presence within the Indiana creative scene for years now, I imagine you'd stop and quietly listen.

Sometimes, the universe announces someone's presence in a gentle whisper. Fry's presence is, indeed, a gentle whisper.

So, I suppose there's my first confession as I put into words my response to Fry's unexpected holiday delight "Eliam."

If I were to describe "Eliam," I might first describe it as a foundational spiritual autobiography for Fry written within a year that he has acknowledged was a year of transitions. However, "Eliam" is fiction despite my own heart and mind's easily connecting as a story fundamental to Fry's life journey.

"Eliam" is perhaps best suited for those from the teens on up. Those with some connection to spirituality, whether Christianity, Buddhism, Indigenous or otherwise, will also find much to connect with her.

The story centers around, you guessed it, a young lad named Eliam. Eliam, we will learn, has always been a tad different. He whispers when the world shouts. He wonders when the world so often seeks to squelch curiosity. He's a compelling lad whose journey is reflective, gentle, meditative and, I'd dare say, even healing.

Fry, who starred in "This Train," stepped out of his comfort zone to produce "The Tenderness Tour." He steps out of that comfort zone again to share with us "Eliam," though he's also shared he intuitively knew this story was bigger than a song or poem.

At its essence, "Eliam" is a story about that moment in life when something deeper begins to start. Fry himself calls the story "a journey of myth and memory," a description that fits perfectly. It's about that moment, perhaps and at least for me, when we begin to realize that life has changed us - whether it's simply because of life journey, trauma, illness, loss, grief or whatever - and, at least for me, it's curiosity and wonder that will ultimately save us and bring us back to who we've always been.

This year, my father passed away. It has left me without immediate family - my brother, mother, father, spouse, and newborn child all having gone before me. I still have family and I still have family of choice along with treasured friends, however, these losses have somehow called me back toward a sense of wonder and surrender. This is a gentle story, a relatively brief literary journey at just under 80 pages. However, it's a meaningful one sublimely timed for the holidays.

Ideal in print and available also for the Kindle, "Eliam" builds from a literary whisper and grows into the fullness of its story not of who we're becoming but of who we already are.