GREENWOOD, Ind., Aug. 4, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Simon Alexander had reached the top of the San Francisco restaurant game, but it cost him relationships with his wife and daughter. After his wife moves out, she and his daughter are killed in a car accident and Simon is left to pick up the pieces in Little Kingdoms (now available through AuthorHouse), the new novel by Michael A. Lubarsky.
A story of second chances at love and life, the novel opens with Simon's business flourishing and his relationships crumbling. He arranges to sell a percentage of the restaurant to his chef, Lewis Watts, and reconcile with his family, but their deaths change everything. Simon's world is shattered. Distraught and confused, he leaves for Europe to avoid gut-wrenching revelations about his wife's infidelity and the guilt he suffers from his neglect.
When he lands on the distant Greek island of Patmos, he is in an alcoholic haze. Uncaring of what happens next, Simon finds a second chance in the face of a woman. He meets Katrina Hagen, a German travel agent staying in the same hotel. She is recovering from a rough breakup with Maxmillian, a former World Cup soccer player. Simon and Katrina begin to spend all of their time on the island together. Both begin perceiving a future with the other and talk of returning to Athens together, but Katrina has second thoughts and abandons him. Simon, determined to make her love him, charters a boat and sails through the night to Athens.
Katrina is falling in love with him, but is still unsure. She invites Simon to travel with her to Munich and, once they are there, Simon must deal with her past as his own becomes more intrusive. A visit with Serena, Katrina's younger sister, reveals a world of infidelity, and Marcus Reed, Simon's attorney, comes to Munich to finalize a restaurant deal, a part of which he seems to be concealing. With haunting pasts, Simon and Katrina must fight the manipulation and motivations of others to grasp their future and seize their second chance.
Set in exotic locations, Little Kingdoms details the ways life can pass people by and luck can offer a reprieve if they are willing to fight.
Lubarsky earned a bachelor's degree in English from Indiana University and a master's in English literature from the University of Indianapolis. He lives in the Indianapolis area with his wife and two sons, and teaches at Franklin College. Little Kingdoms is his first novel. For more information, readers can visit www.littlekingdoms.com.
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