Immerse yourself in a world frozen in time
Discover a richly-textured, historically-accurate adventure that illuminates a lesser-known front of the Second World War: Portugal’s precarious neutrality and its shadow world of spies, refugees, and religious tensions.
Breath of the Adamastor, the new title of this second edition of A Life on Water, more accurately captures the deeper mythic and environmental layers at the story’s core and embraces both the mood and the thematic focus of the novel.
More Graham Greene than James Bond, but more charm and warmth than either of them
“I’m a sucker for wartime shenanigans and science, so this was great for me, with spying and marine biology against the backdrop of WW2 Portugal, plus walk on parts for Ian Fleming and Kim Philby. The characters all came off the page. Pulling off multiple viewpoints and timelines is tricky but worked. The story weaves together a cast of characters as a nuanced way into the humanity and morality of the hard moral choices forced by wartime, more Graham Greene than James Bond, but more charm and warmth than either of them.”
Matthew Hurst
reviewing A Life on Water
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Other books by Timothy Paleczny
A Bill to Pay is a coming-of-age comedy about a young man, his grandfather, and friends who come to appreciate the price of life's little decisions.
Harking back to a time of simpler values circa 1988-90 when the new U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was in the news, A Bill to Pay calls to mind what was lost and the price Canadians continue to pay.
In the tradition of Ovid's Metamorphoses, The Tale of Indigo is a love poem that commemorates humanity's deepest and most enduring myth—creation—and confronts the greatest issues of our time: greed, disease (COVID), and climate change.
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A wonderful tale of historical fiction
Set during the 1930s and 1940s in Portugal, A Life on Water is “full of detail, complex characters, and really interesting factual info concerning the activities of neutral countries during the war, the involvement of the church, etc. that is not well known … [and what] really stands out for me about your writing is how visual it is. You create a strong image of the time and place. I hope you are planning to write it as a screenplay. The imagery is magical, especially of the village and religious events. It would make a fantastic Netflix series.”
Suzanne Paleczny
Whitehorse
The overall effect is excellent
“The characters are strong, the dialogue is well written and the story is excellent. The various storylines are built carefully and each is engaging. You feel that you know the characters. As they start to connect and weave together the overall effect is excellent.”
Mark Skalin
reviewing A Life on Water