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A writer loses his friends, family, and home because of his writer’s block. With the help of a familiar stranger, he finds a table by the window at a coffee shop that changes everything for him. The table gives him back his creativity and his life. However, like everything in life, there is a catch. He can only write at that table and nowhere else on Earth. The familiar stranger soon comes back to haunt him. The writer flees to another town, starts to work at a coffee shop, and meets Tristan. Tristan is also suffering from writer’s block and finds his own table but with tragic results.
Leon’s prose is poetic and unnerving to the end. His referencing of the Bible and Dante's "Inferno" throughout the story makes it all the more brilliant. This is a psychological look into the writer’s mind and what a person will do to keep their career from failing. Tristan, for instance, tells the main character that his family is rich, but they are going to cut him off because he left his Ivy League school to become a writer. Like the main character, Tristan’s writing career is a life-and-death situation. If he can’t write, he won’t have a family or a home to go to.
The audiobook version is outstanding and moving. The narration is done by voice actor Drew Coombs who gives the perfect tragic touch to an already tragic tale. There are also sound effects and music by Scott Buckley. The sound effects make it as if the listener is walking right with the main character. In the end, Leon has crafted a thought-provoking piece of literature.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review
A 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award Category Finalist