Ohio Authors Acclaimed Novel is no Small Thing"

The Discontinuity of Small Things, the new novel by Athens, Ohio author Kevin Haworth, is quickly turning into something of a big thing. This striking debut, which describes the lives of ordinary citizens in Denmark during the German occupation of World War II, sold out its first print run within two weeks of its official publication in May. Though Haworths publisher, Quality Words In Print, immediately printed additional copies, demand for the books continues to be high.

(PRWEB) May 31, 2005 -- The Discontinuity of Small Things, the new novel by Athens, Ohio author Kevin Haworth, is quickly turning into something of a big thing. This striking debut, which describes the lives of ordinary citizens in Denmark during the German occupation of World War II, sold out its first print run within two weeks of its official publication in May. Though Haworths publisher, Quality Words In Print, immediately printed additional copies, demand for the books continues to be high.

While success for first time authors is rare, the positive response to this title should perhaps not be unexpected. Described as a quiet book of the Holocaust", the novel itself is compelling on many levels: Readers are taken on a wartime tour of Denmark, the lovely country by the sea", where the populace suffers under the strictures of martial law; the accumulation of deprivations haphazardly prods them fateful moments of choice, heroism, or cowardice. By skillfully rendering the overlap of memory, apprehension, and impulse, the author reveals in them a consciousness that teems with both immediacy and longing.

Thirty-four-year-old Haworth attributes his earliest inspirations for the novel to observations he made several years ago at a photography exhibition:

When I was in the Masters program at Arizona State I came across a photo exhibit in the student center--scenes from Denmark that had been important in the Danish Resistance and the rescue of Jews. Most of the photos--taken fifty years after the fact--showed empty spaces: a stretch of beach where Jews had stood; the pavement outside a hospital where a man had fallen from a window. I became obsessed with filling in those spaces--empty holes into which great history had once been pored. At the time I had never been to Denmark and knew little about this small, marginalized Holocaust story."

He produced some promising early chapters in his Masters program. Then, buoyed by the encouragement of his instructors and peers, he undertook a trip to Denmark to explore this time and place that so intrigued him:

When I began to research and write, first from books and photographs, then in Denmark itself, I found the kind of contradictions that any writer would recognize as the stuff of fiction: An occupation that involved almost no violence, and which the Germans described as a great understanding" between themselves and the Danish government. Jews who fled and then returned to their homes as if little had transpired. A war waged mostly by pamphlet."

Haworth has been a two-time resident of the Vermont Studio Center, as well as a winner of the David Dornstein Prize for Young Jewish Writers and the Permafrost Fiction Prize. His Masters in Fiction Writing was earned at the prestigious Arizona State University Writers Program. His talent and dedication are obvious, though his spare, hypnotic prose is hardly dashed off on a whim. He notes, reflectively, This book took eight years to write. It took six years before I could even arrange the numerous scenes -- written individually and in no particular order -- into a linear draft. I could have written this book for the rest of my life."

The rest of his life" is rather full at the moment. In addition to obliging requests for readings from his novel, he currently teaches Writing and Literature at Ohio University. His wife, Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, is Executive Director of Hillel at Ohio University. The couple are particularly active in the University and broader Athens communities, where they often organize student events that reinforce Jewish holiday traditions and encourage the understanding of Jewish culture. Additionally, they share care responsibilities for their two-year-old son, Zev.

Readers are fortunate that, even with his commitments to family and community, Haworth has still made time to write. His book succeeds in highlighting the hopes and triumphs achieved through the efforts of good-hearted individuals during the Holocaust, without in any way diminishing the fears and injustices experienced by so many, Jew and non-Jew alike. Calling the book a thoroughly imagined debut", Publishers Weekly, which sets the industry standard for book reviews, takes note of Haworths gift for touching readers, concluding This engrossing historical novel details a bright spot in a dark era."

Look for copies of The Discontinuity of Small Things at special displays in Borders Bookstores throughout Ohio in mid-June through early July.

For additional information or a reader's copy of The Discontinuity of Small Things, please contact Holly C. Gruber at Quality Words In Print, (714) 436-5700 or hgruber@qwipbooks.com.

The Discontinuity of Small Things by Kevin Haworth (hardcover, 240 pages, $23.95) was published by Quality Words In Print in May 2005, and is available through major internet booksellers and selected bookstores.

Quality Words In Print is an independent publisher of literary fiction and non-fiction based in Costa Mesa, California.

Contact Information:
Holly Gruber
Quality Words In Print
(714) 436-5700
hgruber@qwipbooks.com
www.qwipbooks.com

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