The Legacy of Lorna Lovelost by Gary William Murning.

The saddest thing I think I can imagine is passing through life without  some kind of impact, without leaving a legacy in one form of another. We all contribute. We enrich the lives of others in so many ways.

We spend our lives trying to make sense of the world, searching for answers in striving to achieve wisdom but the only certainty in life is that one day, sooner or later, we will die. Murning's novel explores the fear and isolation of dying in a sensitive but powerful way. It is extremely moving and based on realism.

Tobias Lovelost, the lemon who day after day, week after week, month after month survived on his own even after encountering disappointment after disappointment. Like the song says, you still haven't found what you're looking for. He was destined to be the man who didn't say anything, the man who wouldn't speak up for himself until he met Lorna. She instilled in him the confidence to speak his mind.

His personal life, his marriage to Lorna felt wonderful. Lorna loved Tobias unconditionally. She was completely dependable and mutual respect was reciprocated. They had been blissfully married for six years and were seen as the perfect couple. Tobias couldn't imagine life without Lorna. Meeting her had transformed him.

His work was another matter. Methodical and tedious, an exercise in conformity and restraint working for a ruthless boss, Middleton, who bullied and threatened.

Tobias rekindled a friendship with eccentric writer Bob Bartholomew and his passionate pumpkin of an artist, Patsy O'Connor, a very down-to-earth, welcoming person who accepted people for who they were. Bob had developed OCD-Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Something
very strange...A fear of open doors. Closed doors are not a problem just open ones. Very odd.

Jogging on Sundays became a happy ritual for Tobias and Lorna until the misjudging of the bollards culminates in Lorna crashing to the ground. An anxious Tobias suggested the hospital for a check-up. Lorna has a routine examination followed by scans which herald the unexpected and shocking news that Lorna has a brain tumour which has affected her sight. She can expect to live up to 12 months with surgery and chemo. Like a bolt out of the blue, the novel explores how they both come to terms with the inevitable.

I felt reality kicking in-unremitting and brutally cold, merciless in its ineradicable integrity. Like a child, I wanted to clamp my hands over my ears-squeezing my eyes shut.

He wanted to be innocent, not knowing, in self-denial. Living in the past meant death, living in the future was death in the present. If he lost Lorna he believed that his years in the wilderness would begin again............

Murning introduces another storyline running concurrently with Tobias and Lorna's. It contains similar ingredients of tragedy but seeks the permission to hope for a better future. This time it is Bob's story and begins with a lasting image of a woman falling from his apartment window when he was a child.

No screaming, no yelling. Nothing. She just slowly rolled forward -toppling out and down.

The truth was that this woman was not actually there. Young Bob did not see her die. His parents had been arguing. The young boy had made a mental connection between the woman who had fallen and his mother's leaving. Accident and conscious decision he called it. It became one and the same. An illusion of his dead mother added to his OCD tipped him off balance mentally whilst Tobias is trying to deal with his own trauma.

For Lorna and Tobias, a return to the moors, revisiting a favourite haunt of their childhood, conjuring up wonderful memories proves to be an emotionally happy time until an image of Barghest reminds them that death is waiting.

Eliza Jones' legacy is awesome, leaving Bob speechless and in tears. Lorna's legacy is vital for Tobias' future survival and happiness.

I needed you to unearth that quality within yourself. That strength and lack of indecision, the faith in yourself that only you could truly find.

Doesn't hope rely on faith, so that in spite of tragedy we are hopeful that there is something worth waiting for? When you read it you will then understand why permission to hope is so relevant and having faith in oneself is the key to the future. Enjoy.

Publisher: GWM Publications.     ISBN: 978-0-9570636-3-1.

Copyright 2013. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this review is reproduced.