Shelter of Leaves

2016 Foreward INDIE Awards Finalist, Science Fiction
2016 Indie Fab Finalist, Science Fiction
2017 National Indie Excellence Finalist, Regional Fiction: Southeast

On Memorial Day, a series of bomb explosions shuts down major cities across the US. Her apartment in ruins, Sabine flees Washington DC and begins a grueling journey on foot that brings her to West Virginia, where she finds safety at an abandoned farmhouse with other refugees.

For Sabine, family is a vague memory—she can’t even remember her last name. Without an identity, she hides—although thirty-five, she pretends to be twenty-eight, even to the refugee she falls in love with. But Sabine wants to recover her identity. Despite gangs, bombings, riots, and spreading disease, she longs to return to a family she has begun to recall—a mother, a father, and brothers. Are they alive, surviving, in hiding as she is? Do they await news, and hope to reconcile? Even in harrowing times, Sabine’s desires to belong and to be loved pull her away from shelter.

Author: Lenore Gay

Publication Date: August 9, 2016

Categories: Fall 2016, Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Description
About the Author

Description

2016 Foreward INDIE Awards Finalist, Science Fiction
2016 Indie Fab Finalist, Science Fiction
2017 National Indie Excellence Finalist, Regional Fiction: Southeast

“Shelter of Leaves by Lenore H. Gay is a fast-paced and extremely detailed suspense novel about the realities of terrorism and survival. Gay’s characters all come across as everyday people who, like most, have a secret or two they keep to themselves. Her use of real cities that people will recognize also helps bring this story to life and give it the realistic qualities that will leave readers wondering: “What if this really happened?””
—San Fracisco Book Review

“Sabine awakens disoriented amid falling rubble and flashing lights. Although she manages to escape her crumbling Washington, D.C. apartment, she quickly finds herself and her memory lost in a world at war. Against this backdrop, Gay reveals the chaos of Sabine’s battle against both internal and external horrors, with mysteries multiplying page by page. …danger is ever present in the threat of intruders; the ongoing, nameless war; and the return of Sabine’s memories. Gay’s fast paced, thrilling debut novel is ideal for lovers of post-apocalyptic fiction and The Walking Dead.”
—Booklist

“Shelter of Leaves is written with a confident hand. The book blends humanity, story and style into a seamless weave of shadow and light. Not just action, not just character work. Gay mines every great trick of storytelling for a fast, yet deep, tale of a world and people on the brink.”
—David L. Robbins, New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including War of the Rats

“The story of Sabine’s evolving strengths and desire to be more than asurvivor carry the themes of reconstruction, recovery, and rebuildingthat make Shelter of Leaves so compelling.”
—Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Lenore Gay is a Licensed Professional Counselor with master’s degrees in sociology and rehabilitation counseling. She has worked in agencies and psychiatric hospitals, and for ten years she maintained a private practice. The Virginia Center of the Creative Arts (VCCA) has awarded her two writing fellowships. Her poems and short stories have appeared in several journals. Her essay “Mistresses of Magic” was published in the anthology In Praise of Our Teachers (Beacon Press). Her story “The Hobo” won first place in Style Weekly’s annual fiction contest. She is a volunteer reader at Blackbird, An Online Journal for Literature & The Arts. Shelter of Leaves is her first book.