By Marissa Wells
Contributing Writer
Nineteen-year-old Beatriz, a high school dropout, has stumbled upon a library basement that can transport her between the 21st and early 19th centuries. There she meets the ghosts of Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, Lord Byron and Frankenstein’s monster.
As Beatriz embarks on thrilling adventures — hunting ghosts and monsters with Keats in Scotland, walking across France with Mary and Percy, and more — she wrestles with life, love and death, fate and freedom, becoming a warrior of her own womanhood and destiny.
So goes “Awake For Ever in a Sweet Unrest” by Chuck Rosenthal.
An author of more than a dozen novels, Rosenthal was led to write this novel following his experience reading the work of romantic poets like William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and Lord Byron.
Rosenthal knew he had to share his excitement and fascination with the world, and as a novelist, teacher and writer for more than 35 years, he figured a novel would be the best way to communicate the tale of these writers.
“Awake For Ever in a Sweet Unrest” will appeal to readers who are open to being entertained while learning.
“Though it doesn’t pinpoint an age group, I’d like to turn the heads of young people, not by yelling at them to get off their phones, but by showing, by, like the romantics themselves, lifting the veil from reality to find the beauty in the most ordinary things,” Rosenthal said. “To change the world inside their own lives.”
It’s the author’s hope that his book proves to be moving for readers.
“Beauty is truth, truth, beauty. It was true 200 years ago and it’s true now,” Rosenthal said. “Beatriz discovers that physically and emotionally as she travels with these characters, these ghosts. I hope my readers will as well.”
In addition to being an author, Rosenthal is a retired professor. He is based in Topanga Canyon. For more information about the author and his work, visit chuckrosenthal.com.
Rosenthal will host a book event at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego at 4 p.m. Jan. 25.
“Awake For Ever in a Sweet Unrest” is available for $16.99 (paperback) and $29.99 (hardcover) via chuckrosenthal.com, waltonwellpress.com Bookshop.org, Amazon, and the Beyond Baroque Bookstore. Also, any bookstore can order the book from the distributor, Ingram.
