In the Shadow they Cast
by Paul Graham
After surviving a tough, impoverished childhood in New York, Paolo Vignone has carved out a new life for himself by building a thriving, if morally dubious, business empire. When his son Lorenzo becomes involved in a relationship which earns his disapproval, he sends the boy to Europe to defuse the situation, but on his return there is yet another surprise in store for Paolo. Then chance brings together two of Paolo’s own kin and characters from the past, with tragic and murderous consequences.
Available to purchase online.
ISBN: 978-1-86151-865-1
About the author
After graduating in Spanish Paul spent some time working in the book trade. He then moved on to IT and worked in computing, mostly as a programmer, for 30 years. After being made redundant, he changed career path again and started teaching English as a foreign language on line. He dedicated the extra free time to writing In The Shadow They Cast, is his first novel.
The author writes...
Communication
Coincidence
Consequence
In The Shadow They Cast was a far longer project than I anticipated; in total it took over six years to write.
There were times when I lost the energy to continue and others when I could not solve problems that the plot presented. Progress was also hindered by people in the book who refused to behave out of character, whereby causing me no little inconvenience. It seems that they have a life of their own.
I have always enjoyed writing, fortunately my earliest efforts are now lost. The story in this book began to take shape before I committed to the novel. I used to play a game with my daughter, inventing characters and stories, writing a few lines and then sending them to her. She would then add to them or change them or reply with a new idea. After the game ended the ideas lay dormant until someone told me that I should write "because you have the ideal imagination for it". Some of the characters and incidents have survived the game and appear in the novel.
The problem I had writing was convincing the reader. Nothing happens in isolation. Would the characters have behaved like that? Why? The ideas that remained after those story dialogues could have been told in isolation, but would not have stood up. I have therefore attempted to explain the past of the characters so that you are not left wondering why something happened. At the same time there is a limit. While every action or inaction has a consequence it would be impossible and fruitless to go back to the dawn of time to explain a fictional event.
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