A novel of ideas about depression, death and resurrection

Reno Antonin, a middle-aged man, is rapidly falling into a deep depression ignited by a series of medical crises and fueled by the repressed memory of a dark event that happened decades before. When psychotherapy fails him, he searches for other means to resolve his problem. Finally, he meets a strange group of people who offer him an unorthodox solution. The more times he’s been anesthetized for his surgeries, the more he’s convinced that he has an idea of what death might be like. But if death were like what a lot of people believe, that some form of their consciousness lives on forever, he’d be damned afraid of dying. “Shame on you. Those ‘spirits’ are manifestations of your imagination, churned up by some conflict in your subconscious.” “Important clues are buried under protective layers, shadows, built up by your conscious and subconscious mind.” “I agree. A total loss of consciousness simulates death.” “When you awake, your consciousness is recreated, reborn from nothing. You won’t be the same; your old consciousness is ‘dead.’’’

I studied at Johns Hopkins and earned my PhD. at Cornell. My chosen profession has allowed me the privilege of living and working in a number of countries in South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Working in these countries, I got to know some of the local people and their culture. I usually felt I was helping people. But all was not perfect, however. There were some trying times when I felt like scrapping everything and going back to the safety and comfort of my own country. A lot of my experiences have grown into interesting and unusual stories which I’ve always liked to share with good friends and family. As I’ve gotten older, like most people, I wonder what the end of life might bring. My second book, Lazarus in the Labyrinth, attempts to deal with this most important of all human issues, as a novel of ideas about religion, death and resurrection. I’m now retired and lead a quiet life in Ithaca, New York, with a partner, a dog and a beautiful garden.