Stories That Illuminate Life’s Profoundest Moments
Explore the Intersection of Humanity, History, and the Divine
Peter Prizel: Author, Social Worker, and Storyteller
Years of Writing Experience
An Angelic Folly
Jacob Monger, a social worker at a hospice, has just been through a painful divorce and is having his two young daughters overnight for the first time. He is eager to succeed with his visit, but he must also attend to Tony, a hospice patient and Vietnam Veteran, who has a penchant for collecting records and playing Mozart’s The Requiem.
Tony is actively dying and is trying to settle unfinished business with his own children. Jacob’s efforts to help his patient make peace with his situation before his death are made more difficult by the Arch Angel Gabriel, who is having his own qualms with his Father. As punishment for disobeying Him, Gabriel is confined to the magical heavenly chariot of Ezekiel, whose tires he must constantly replace with the souls of humans—those who have been errant fathers—to keep it running. Jacob must care for Tony while keeping Gabriel at bay.
At the same time, Jacob discovers through his conflicts with Gabriel what parenthood is all about, and his insights strengthen his relationship with his young daughters. During this journey, Jacob contemplates his own feelings about the end-of-life against the history of the Requiem and its dramatic origins.
The Fermented Savior
Marie Martin is a young girl who is the daughter of two vineyard workers at Baron Rothchild’s estate, which once housed Marie Currie’s lab, causing the soil to become radioactive and magical. After the Baron leaves for Great Britain due to his Jewish origins, Marie’s family is left to run the estate occupied by the Germans. While the Baron is gone, she discovers that grapes are magical and that the ones in the “white” vineyard are pro-Nazi and those in the “purple” vineyard are Jewish. The purple grapes reveal that if made into wine, they can convince those who drink them that the Jews should not be persecuted.
Günter Adler is the son of a viticulturalist who worked with the Baron as his business partner in Germany before the war. Drafted into the Wehrmacht along with his father Heinz Adler, Günter finds himself helping Marie harvest the Jewish grapes to help the Jewish populace while simultaneously being under pressure to supply wine for the German Luftwaffe at Göring’s orders. Throughout the novella, Marie and Günter do their best to stay “one step ahead” of the Nazis and do their best to help The Resistance save France’s Jewish populace.
Verses of the Soviet Rail
Traverse a wonderous and often harrowing history in Verses of the Soviet Rail. Take a journey through Mayakovskaya Metro Station and feel the fear of the citizens as they cower in its vestibule while Moscow is bombed.
Stroll along the platform of Dostoevskaya station and contemplate the renowned literature of Fyodor Dostoevsky, or travel across the eleven time zones of the Former Soviet Union on the Trans-Siberian Railway with a recovering alcoholic.
Verses of the Soviet Rail takes you on an incredible journey, leaving you to marvel not only at the beauty of these underground metro-museums but also at the symbolism behind the socialist-realist architecture.
An Angelic Folly
“I shouldn’t have tried to paint such a rosy picture to exonerate you.”
Jacob is a young man approaching the end of his internship at a hospice care facility. He values the time he spends with the residents, but he has developed a friendly rapport with a terminal cancer patient named Tony. They talk about vinyl records and the emotive music of Mozart. As Tony reflects on his mortality, he requests Jacob mail a DNA kit as he wants to learn if he has any offspring. Jacob complies but worries about whether the results will truly satisfy Tony’s mind. Jacob has problems of his own as he is a divorced father of two young girls whom he sporadically sees. Each visit with his two daughters comes equipped with anticipation and anxiety. Jacob’s problems become compounded when he soon makes the acquaintance of the Archangel Gabriel, who seems to be in close proximity to the residents of the hospice care.
Matters of life, death, and the hereafter all weigh on Jacob’s mind in this moving and pensive drama. Jacob is the comforting presence that the patients rely on in their last days, yet his demeanor belies the mess of his personal life. The insecurities and doubts that plague his mind make Jacob a relatable character, even more so when he is placed in transcendental situations. The poignancy of pondering one’s mortality is coupled with the ongoing plight of the now-fallen Archangel Gabriel. His random appearances rattle Jacob but generate some of the story’s absurdly funny moments. The narrative handles the subjects of life, death, and spirituality with dignity and respect, and the payoff is more than satisfactory. This is a book with genuine appeal.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review
Ric Bratton’s interview with Peter Prizel
for An Angelic Folly
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