Reaching Home

by Ron Breazeale

A novel about conquering fear...

To order Reaching Home by Ron Breazeale click here
$16.95 (multiple copy discounts available)

Dr. Lee Brazil, a "southern refuge," has never made peace with the South he grew up in as a child born without a left hand; nor with the prosthetic hook he wears and the nuclear industry he blames for his disability.

While researching material for his book, Ten Years in the Not-So-New South, in Pine Grove, Tennessee, the "Atomic City," Lee attends a SOMOP meeting-Save Our Mountain and Our People-an activist group working to shut down the Pine Grove Labs incinerator for nuclear waste. When an explosion at the Labs occurs, Lee is caught up in the ensuing disaster and implicated in what is mistakenly believed to be a terrorist plot.

Managing to escape local authorities, his harrowing journey back home to Maine forces him to seek refuge in a number of unlikely places and solicit help from a number of unlikely allies, including Jean Kudrick, the lost love of his youth.

Now on the radar of federal agents tracking a terrorist cell in Boston, Lee is arrested before he reaches home. He is offered a deal: help the FBI foil a terrorist plot and avoid prosecution.

In confronting the politics of fear, Lee must challenge his perception of good and evil and struggle with the disabling inner conflicts of his disability to determine his course in reaching home.

About the Author
Dr. Ron Breazeale, a clinical psychologist with over 30 years of experience in the field of mental health and drug and alcohol treatment, has developed and administered numerous mental health and substance abuse programs and has written about the things that he knows.

He was born with a birth defect in the "Atomic City," Oak Ridge, Tennessee where his parents lived and worked. He has worn a prosthetic hook most of his life and grew up in the South as a child with a disability. He returned to the "New South" for 10 years to work as a psychologist. He has lived much of the book. Having grown up with a disability, Dr. Breazeale has focused much of his clinical practice and his writing on persons with a disability and their families.

He is married and has one child. He lives and works in southern Maine.

What People Are Saying About Reaching Home
"Reaching Home affords us a discerning and deeply human view into the political-psychological realities of disability in America. Down-to-earth, diverting and dynamic, the characters reflect the struggle we all confront to surmount our own differences-and discover our strengths-as they lead us in this moving journey home. Inspiring!"
-Dr. Gianna M. Settin, author of Perspectives on Growth

"Ron Breazeale demonstrates a Faulknerian understanding of his native south leavened with the wisdom and understanding of human nature gleaned from years of psychological practice. Breazeale's tale offers an insightful analysis of the Bush Administration's misuse of fear and the resulting consequences for all Americans' civil liberties. Reaching Home is required reading for citizens who wish to understand our current political climate."
- Don Nalls

"This provocative, entertaining novel reveals how our childhood experiences mold our character to that of courage and altruism, or fear and destructive behavior when confronted with a struggle to survive.
- Diana D. Sarkar, MD

"Through a strong story line, skillfully developed characters, and fast-paced action, the author involves the reader in events that could potentially happen to any of us. Reaching Home is exciting and provocative!
- Marti Richardson, author, Succeeding with Struggling Students

"Each of us harbors fear and apprehension and in the dark of night...the mind can extend the shadow of doubt and worry. Reaching Home draws the reader from story to real life associations compelling us to relive and confront our own experience.
- Richard C. Lumb, criminologist and contributing author, The Police Journal

Book Signings and Speaking Engagements
Contact Ron Breazeale at bookings@reachinghome.com