Synopsis

All he wants to do is skate. But they have other plans for him.

Michael Daniels is seventeen and dreams to enter professional skateboarding contests. But beneath New Manhattan, a city under the oppressive shadow of climate change, exists another world altogether—secret laboratories which threaten society as he knows it.

Those with power will get what they want. No price is too high, even if it means making someone special or robbing them of their dignity, freedom . . . or life.

The price is too high for Michael, though. He has endured his stepfather’s abuse and mind games for almost as long as he remembers. Until one day he takes matters into his own hands, ruining the lives of those he loves most. And his skateboarding friends, Alien and Victor, are his only hope for freedom.

When there is no hope left, friendship is what remains.

Amazon * Amazon CA * Amazon UK

Preorder now for just $0.99 for the Kindle version

Excerpt

1st: To do the ollie (the basic and, according to many, the simplest of tricks) follow these steps. Put your front foot across the middle of the board. Your back foot is in the center of the tail. The tail of the board extends from the back truck to its rear end while the nose of the board extends from the front . . .

HE IS SEVENTEEN. A FREE ENTITY of a six-and-something million New Manhattan population, panicky in their effort to keep up with the time and catch a break in short nightly intervals before the challenges of a new day. The fact that it is summer is of no importance to anyone. The pulse of New York City continues to beat in its wild, crazy, and exhausting way.

He is young, very young. Healthy, too, except for a swollen lip and a bruised eye. His face will soon become a specimen of various colors. That doesn’t concern him much because he must think about other things. More important than just the one bruise.

The afternoon he finds himself in is sunny, but chilly—a story of this summer. This summer is cold, the coldest in this century. New Yorkers have already come up with a name for it.

Cruel summer.

Cruel summer, Michael thinks, shaking with cold. His washed-out T-shirt, over which he had pulled only a hooded sweatshirt with a drawing of a grinning skeleton printed above the sign Blind, is doing a poor job in keeping him warm. If someone asked him, he wouldn’t hesitate to take that pathetic sun out of the sky with one shot.

Or rather those who made it so . . . uneconomic.

This time, too, the main, alternative energy source dries up insidiously, opening the door wide to a new wave of pollution and new atmospheric changes.

A new climate disorder.

Michael grimaces. He imagines the reaction of the mayoress of the largest metropolis in the world, with hundreds of thousands of households reaching for heating in the middle of August, causing an overload of the power grid and triggering a new chain reaction of chaos.

Like he cares about it! He is not the Greenpeace green.

But the grass he stands on is green. Although slightly bitten by the morning frost. A perfect setting for his gloomy feelings and depressing thoughts.

The cemetery is empty and quiet, and it looks rather sad. Who would have thought of stumbling into a place like this during the biggest hustle and bustle of the city? Who but its tenants, perhaps some homeless people, thieves, human organ snatchers, or necrosadists . . . ?

Or maybe Michael.

Michael looks down from the sky wrapped in a haze of various vapors and particles of dubious origin. He stares blankly and seemingly absentmindedly at the marble tombstone in front of him. Elegant, not big, but enough to have the names of spouses with their birth and death years. And their children—assuming they will want it and that the rivers of life will not take them to other places.

Nothing more. Humble and simple. That’s what Michael’s mother wanted. Michael’s father didn’t object. Michael knows his reasons: Hank doesn’t like to spend money on unimportant things. But this is another story that never questioned the greatness of Hank’s love for his late wife. Michael is a living witness to this, isn’t he?

Melanie Hope Daniels.

Melanie Hope Daniels—gold lettering carved in white marble.

A face surrounded by an aura of tenderness. Forgiveness. Compliance.

Modesty.

Modesty.

It was his mother, a self-effacing look full of love.

That’s all Michael has from her now, with the promise he’d given her before she passed away: he will look after his sister and keep an eye on her.

Melanie Hope had high hopes for him, in reality still a boy. She believed in the power that lies behind his casualness, seeming disinterest, and defiant rebellion. She believed the contempt in his eyes with which he looks upon most of the world around him. She put her hopes in a “rebel without a cause” in a world that offers thousands of reasons for rebellion, into an unhappy child to whom even the unconditional maternal love has not dulled the blade of the evil fate of birth.

(Wrong place? Wrong time? Who would know?)

The mother’s vision slowly fades, devoured by the cold marble.

The world is at its end. Or is it the beginning of something new?

Hope is dead. What will tomorrow’s dawn look like? Toward the end of the millennium.

“Mother,” Michael says dreamily.

One word. One sigh.

A warm cloud swallowed with haze. And grayness. In the city of light, money, success, and synthetic kitsch. That’s how Michael experiences it—the intersection of contradictions and unimaginable extremes.

Yet . . .

. . . yet he still loves it in some bizarre way and still doesn’t leave its harbor in search of a better life in the Old World. He has three good reasons for this. Three good reasons that still keep him here. For now.

The first lies at his feet; the second enjoys the blessings of school vacations in the wilds of Colorado; and the latter, though no less important, patiently waits for Michael to turn his attention to it. That’s exactly what he does.

Leaving a fresh imprint in the damp earth, Michael takes his skateboard, adjusts a Creature flex fit baseball full cap all the way to his eyes, and sets off.

Toward the streets he will storm through. Toward the asphalt that will rattle under his wheels.

Thuuunderooously!

About the Author

“There is no greater joy than to share what you love with those who appreciate it.”—Bernard Jan

Bernard Jan is a pen name of an award-winning novelist and a poet from Croatia, and he has released four books in English.

Readers’ Favorite Gold Medalist 2020

Readers’ Favorite Bronze Medalist 2019

A World Without Color is a true story of the last three days he spent with his cat, while Look for Me Under the Rainbow in a unique and gentle way sheds light on the plight of harp seal pups in Canada. It warms the heart of all readers concerned about our planet and its treasures. January River is a heartwarming cross-genre novel about five friends, one dog, and one river carrying a secret. His latest YA cross-genre novel, Cruel Summer, is a gripping story of an abused teenager from New Manhattan who only wants to skate, but they have other plans for him.

His first two books were written at the beginning of the war in Croatia in 1991 amidst air alerts and illusory attempts when he wanted to believe and think that life is normal, that everything is all right with the world. He has published five novels, two novellas, and one book of poems in Croatian. Four of his books, including the book of poems, were translated into English.

His passion for music and entertainment resulted in his becoming a partner of Tom’s Music Place, which was established in 2009 by his friend Thomas Carley Jr., whose objective was to raise the respect of music.

His desire to help others came to the fore during his years advocating environmental protection and advocacy of animal rights. He did volunteering work for the refugees, because suffering does not know any borders. When it comes within your reach in your home, you simply have to do something. As part of his animal advocacy activities, it has been a great honor and pleasure to translate Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by Charles Patterson into Croatian.

Website * Twitter * BookBub * Goodreads * LinkedIn

All Author * Authors DB * Steemit * BookLife