Tom’s Universe – the novel (extinct, dead, no more, deceased)

Note: this novel is currently sitting in a drawer, awaiting execution. One day I might go back to it, but it won’t be any time soon.

My first novel is about Tom Esher:

Tom Esher’s unintentionally funny and often surreal journey towards becoming a better person is triggered by the untimely death of his estranged father – an event which leads to a disconcerting series of discoveries, not least that they’re communicating much better now one of them is dead.

It has the working title Tom’s Universe – Monk Quixote – as it was originally conceived as the first of three interlinked novels. Below is a longer version of the pitch….

My very own writer's block

It tells the story of Tom Esher, a twenty-something man struggling with the whole twenty-first-something world, who discovers that it is hard – but not impossible – to apologise to a dead man. It’s about as hard as it is for that dead man to apologise to his son.

You just need to break a few rules.

And learn how to peel an onion:

Tom’s universe is turned upside down by the dying wish of Frank, his estranged father – a request that will lead Tom on a very personal adventure. Tom finds himself on a quest for understanding, forgiveness and redemption – a journey that will take him from the peculiar made-up world between his ears to unfamiliar places filled with strange and damaged people. Some are trying to help – his girlfriend Maggie, Monk Quixote, his online alter-ego with a very shiny tail, but others… he’s not so sure about. What should he make of the dreadlocked stranger who carries a torch for all our sins? Or the Republican Dominoes Club?

And who, or what, is the God of Onions?

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