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At the Crossroads of Humanity

Rita Gerlach is what Vladimir Nabokov calls an enchanter. But, the author moves beyond the classic novels of Charles Dickens and Gustav Flaubert with her unique voice, electric pacing and concise plotting. Riveting suspense hovers through every twist and cranny in the events that unfold as the reader feels the villain lurking behind every scene, waiting, conniving, ready to pounce with meanness and passion, as he eventually does.

Exceptional editing of Abingdon Press Editor Barbara Scott empowers the author to mesmerize her readers as she transposes them to the post-revolutionary period between England and the United States. A structural counterpoint of VIRTUE and VICE permeates. Often words associated with love are used to describe despair. For instance, the play of dualism on the word “embrace,” with the opposite perception of entrapment intended, is repeated: “High in the heavens the moon broke free from the embrace of clouds.” And later: “The sea crashed against the hull, lifted the ship and brought it down again into the sea’s dark embrace.” This is no mere gift of language. This is literary genius.

Like Dickens and Flaubert, Rita’s minor characters stand out. Literary devices abound throughout her magical imagery. Numerous passages of the novel can be printed as free verse and read in exactly the same way. But most of all, the historical love story of Juleah and Seth set against the terrible retribution of Darden’s unrequited love joins the greatest love stories of all time.

When American patriot Seth Braxton travels to Devonshire, England, to claim Ten Width, the estate his grandfather left him, he falls in love with his sister's best friend, the beautiful and independent spirited Juleah, but terrible happenings interfere with their happy-ever-after ending. Can Seth and Juleah survive Darden’s sinister plotting? The stage is set, and SURRENDER THE WIND is everything the author promises it will be.