The Lion Trees

by Owen Thomas

Overview

What if survival required you to unlearn who you are? How far would you fall to save yourself? Sometimes happiness is a long way down.

The Johns family is unraveling. Hollis, a retired Ohio banker, isolates himself in esoteric hobbies and a dangerous flirtation with a colleague's daughter. Susan, his wife of forty years, risks everything for a second chance at who she might have become. David, their eldest, thrashes to stay afloat as his teaching career capsizes in a storm of accusations involving a missing student and the legacy of Christopher Columbus. And young Tilly, the black sheep, having traded literary promise for an improbable career as a Hollywood starlet, struggles to define herself amid salacious scandal, the demands of a powerful director, and the judgments of an uncompromising writer.

By turns comical and poignant, the Johns family is tumbling toward the discovery that sometimes you have to let go of your identity to find out who you are.

[A] cerebral page turner...a powerful and promising debut.--Kirkus Reviews

"A sweeping literary saga in the tradition of Dr. Zhivago, Gone with the Wind, and The Thorn Birds, this book has it all, including scandal, aspiration, treachery, and reinvention. Thomas' fiction has a fresh feel--original and stirring... By turns exhilarating and exhausting, Thomas creates compelling, rich characters. The ending is just as satisfying as the beginning. -- The Eric Hoffer Book Award

"[FIVE STARS]... "highly addictive, spectacular, and mind blowing" – The US Review of Books

"[FIVE STARS]... "Every now and then, seemingly out of nowhere, a new voice comes along and knocks your socks off. Owen Thomas owns that voice. -- The Anchorage Press

"[A] powerful, gripping and realistic story...The Lion Trees does what so very few great novels can: it will take a lot out of you, but leave you with much more than you had when you began."--Pacific Book Reviews, a five star review.

AWARDS

The Kindle Book Award (Winner)
The Global eBook Awards (Winner)
The Eric Hoffer Award (Winner - Honorable Mention)
First Horizon Award (Finalist)
Beverly Hills International Book Awards (Finalist)
London Book Festival (Honorable Mention)
Southern California Book Festival (Honorable Mention)
Great Midwest Book Festival (Honorable Mention)
Los Angeles Book Festival (Honorable Mention)
Great Southeast Book Festival (Honorable Mention)
Pacific Rim Book Festival (Honorable Mention)
Hollywood Book Festival (Honorable Mention)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940150482005
Publisher:	OTF Literary
Publication date:	08/21/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1612
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Owen Thomas is a life-long Alaskan living on Maui because life is too short for long winters. He has written six books: The Lion Trees (which has garnered over sixteen international book awards, including the American Writing Awards, the Amazon Kindle Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the Book and Author Book of the Year, the Beverly Hills International Book Award and, most recently, a finalist in the Book Excellence Awards); Mother Blues, (a novel of music and mystery set in post-Hurricane Harvey Texas, Finalist for the American Writing Awards and the Book Excellence Fiction Award, and collecting a Bronze in the Readers Views Reviewers’ Choice Awards); Message in a Bullet: A Raymond Mackey Mystery, (the first in a series of detective novels, shortlisted for the Best Mystery Book of the Year by Forward INDIES Book of the Year Awards and collecting a Silver from the eLit Book Awards); The Russian Doll: A Raymond Mackey Mystery (the second book in that series); Signs of Passing (a book of interconnected short stories and novellas, and winner of fourteen book awards, including the 2014 Pacific Book Awards for Short Fiction, the Indie Reader Discovery Award, the Great Southwest Book Festival, has garnered placements at the Paris, London and Los Angeles Book Festivals and was also named one of the 100 Most Notable Books of 2015 by Shelf Unbound Magazine); and This is the Dream, (a collection of stories and novellas that explore that perplexing liminal distance between who we are and what we want; Finalist for the American Writing Awards and the International Book Award in short fiction, and collecting a Bronze in the Readers Views Reviewers’ Choice Awards).

When he is not writing, Owen recreates and takes photographs of the grandeur of these wonderfully picturesque locations. Some of these photos are posted on Owen’s photo blog, 1000 Words per Frame

Editorial Reviews

In its structure and nature, it reminds me above all of John Updike's wonderful Harry Rabbit novels and their ability to summarise the essence of change in American society across a decade at a time.

BookIdeas.com - John Walsh

[A] powerful,...and realistic story. [A] few decades ago, many authors would set out to write "The Great American Novel," hoping to tap into whatever ... makes the US and its people so unique and hopeful, particularly at a set point in time. ... [I]t doesn't seem like anyone tries to write those kind of seminal novels anymore... until now. ... This is a wonderful, well written tale. ... The Lion Trees does what so very few great novels can... leav[ing] you with much more than you had when you began.

Pacific Book Review - James Sadler

[A]n amazingly entertaining piece of literature... and do I dare say it, a serious novel that provides you with some genuine laugh out loud moments. ... The Lion Trees depicts people who can't be slotted as just saints or monsters, they fall somewhere in between, just like any of us. Owen Thomas's writing leaves you richer with emotions and contentment even before the ending arrives. If there is only one book that you are going to read this year, make it The Lion Trees.

Motorwriter.com - Kevin Peter