HELENA UNBOUND

About the Book

“Just like a little psychosis to throw off people’s routine.”

One fine morning, while looking at some photos and drinking a cup of tea, Helena Berry- wife, mother, writer- disappears from her own life.  Inexplicably, and almost unconsciously, she drains her bank account and heads west, without plans and without a care.  She eventually ends up in the startled arms of Patrick Green, a lover from her youth, whose own comfortable life is falling apart.  Though initially baffled, Patrick is soon consumed with Helena, and their dormant love affair resumes over coffee at Helena’s new job and one long night in a San Francisco hotel.

Helena’s state of suspended reality eventually breaks, with disastrous results, but not before their fate is sealed.  Helena Unbound is a story of old loves and new lives, of two misfits who run away from their old mistakes and into a set of brand new ones. Patrick follows Helena back to Texas, to his own roots and old friends.  And also to Helena’s daughter Joni, who seems to be a rock of stability in Helena’s increasingly mad sprint through life.  When Helena’s flighty behavior leads to Montana and she seems to leave Patrick forever, he is left with her legacy- a new son and a troubled daughter.  In the novel’s final act, it is Joni who must battle with her mother’s demons and keep her family together; her struggle provides the story with an unexpectedly upbeat ending, a spiritual reunion, and an overdue smile for Patrick.

For fans of elegant prose and eccentric characters- think Anne Tyler with a California twist- Helena Unbound will delight the mind and gladden the heart.  A woman’s search for herself, a daughter’s search for her mother, Patrick’s search for a family – all are told with humor, whimsy and compassion.

About the Author

Joseph Dixon is a physician living in San Francisco and a native of Texas; his own transition between these two cultures gives Helena Unbound much of its texture and humor. A second novel, Dream In Red, is currently being edited, and a third manuscript is in the works.