the great and calamitous tale of johan thoms by ian thornton
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Start reading an excerpt of The Great and Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms, on sale 10/13! Johan Thoms (pronounced Yo-han Tomes) was born in Argona, a small town twenty-three miles south of Sarajevo, during the hellish depths of winter 1894.Little did he know that his inability to reverse a car would change the course of 20th Century History forever…Johan Thoms was born in a small town south of Sarajevo in 1894. He grows up to become a bright and intelligent university student with the world at his feet. However Johan’s gentle gliding comes to an abrupt halt on a Sunday in June, 1914. While driving the car carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand on his state visit to Sarajevo, Johan makes a wrong turn, and his botched attempts to reverse leave the Archduke and his pregnant wife Sophie open to the bullets of a nearby lunching assassin. The two die in each other’s arms.Johan believes that the enormity of the death and destruction to follow is his fault. As each passing year burdens Johan with further guilt, he seeks solace in his writing and in the makeshift family he assembles around himself. With everyone from emperors to hooligans, from Dorothy Parker to Ernest Hemingway at his side, Johan winds his way through Europe and the Twentieth Century, leaving his indelible mark, all while being pursued by his ever-determined lost love Lorelei.This is an ambitious first novel, written with shades of Kundera and Cervantes yet with a charming identity all its own.