Red Sun Falling

Essay, travelogue and novella set in the city of Guelph, Ontario, covering the years of hope between leaving the university town for the writing life in Germany and returning years later to a Guelph that has moved on. The 'Paris Syndrome', a term coined by Japanese psychiatrists investigating extreme culture shock, can also describe the pursuit of an idealized world - the mythic homeland of Heinrich Boell - at the cost of losing the real one. The conclusion of the Europe voyage comes in West Berlin, epicentre of the catastrophe of the Second World War... Six years after leaving Guelph one bright winter morning, Guelph in the afternoon is a city of empty rooms, the Bookshelf café and cinema, the Albion hotel bar, and the Apollo diner: a few city blocks, no more. In November the Berlin Wall falls, and the author prepares to return to Europe - not to Germany, but onward to Czechoslovakia.An atmospheric story of youth, ambition, disaster, resilience, enduring friendships; and how to move on when love for a woman fails. Hence the 'falling sun' of the title.

Pages: 227, Paperback, Takhini Books