ASHBY JONES: THE CROSSING
ON BIG BLEND RADIO: Ashby Jones who discusses his historical fiction novel “The Crossing,” a stand-alone sequel to “The Angel’s Lamp,” his first novel. Watch here in the YouTube player or download/listen to the podcast on Spreaker, PodBean, SoundCloud.
Ashby Jones is back with a powerful and haunting love story of surprising discovery that takes place in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen during Prohibition. It combines history, fact, surrealism and reality into an ever-recycling boost of the human spirit. Get ready to fall for “The Crossing” (Addison and Highsmith), a story of love and loss, that forces its characters to learn to heal from past troubles while falling in love and trying to decide who they are and what they stand for.
Irish-born Johnny Flynn, a former British soldier, is banished from his homeland and sent to America on a ship so riddled with disease that he realizes the voyage was meant to murder him. When he survives the trip, the captain forces him to walk the plank into the Hudson River. Hell’s Kitchen, Johnny discovers, is thronged with people whose damaged hearts ache for revenge, repentance and love.
Johnny is also plagued by the memory of his former lover, Nora. But when he meets the ghostly Esme, an Irish singer who has suffered from unspeakable horrors, he is dazzled. From Esme Johnny learns how to overcome the desire for revenge, only to discover that she, too, clings to her own dark dream of retribution. As Johnny grapples with taking responsibility to help others resolve this overwhelming dilemma, he learns that Nora is coming to New York to advocate for Irish independence.
“The Crossing” seeks to reconcile love and guilt, grief and promise. Will they find satisfaction and comfort in a time full of danger and uncertainty?
Ashby Jones has been writing historical novels for 50 years. With degrees in Literature and Clinical Psychology; Creative Writing at UCLA under the guidance of Leonardo Bercovici. Jones previously published “The Angel’s Lamp” in 2017 which was well received and reviewed by the Irish Times. Jones’s passion is writing literary fiction that attempts to understand mankind’s never-ending battles with irony, tragedy, blatant contradiction, and the anomalies of love. Such is the focus of “The Crossing,” a stand-alone sequel to ‘The Angel’s Lamp’, his first novel. He studied under such notables as William Hoffman, a best-selling author, and years later at U.C.L.A. under Leonardo Bercovici, a highly regarded screenwriter.
