Hardback
Retail Price: $39.95
“A luminous spiritual fable, exquisitely multilayered, tender, mysterious, and unforgettable.” ……Elizabeth Barnard
Ahnsen is a man who searches for what he calls the hidden. Anyone may see in foliage greenery, or in the leaves and branches of a tree, or sunlight playing on the sand and rocks, forms that may for a moment resemble a human face or an animal, or some other being. So, it is for Ahnsen almost wherever he turns. For him, these quickly passing, wispy forms can indicate a presence, a someone, or even a momentary incarnation of the divine. He sets about capturing them, shaping the dispirit elements which define them, and briefly holding them in place so that others might see. Few ever do. But for those that do see, the experience is profound. Jahna is a woman promised by her clan at birth to the Sisters of the Cloisters of the Sea and to the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Their destinies converge in a tale of existential exploration, intuitive creation, anguish of loss, suffering and the discovery of purpose. The Shaper sits at the intersection of literary fiction, spiritual allegory, and mystical realism, comparable to books such as; Siddartha by Hermann Hesse, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, An Imaginary Life by David Malouf, and Life of Pi by Yann Martel. “The Shaper is an introspective, poetic, and richly symbolic novel, perfect for anyone who enjoys adventurous, philosophical storytelling.”
Hardback
Format: 5.5 x 8.5 Black & White Dust-Jacketed Hardback, 365 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Aug 22, 2025)
ISBN10: 1977281680
ISBN13: 9781977281685
Genre: FICTION / Visionary & Metaphysical
Born in San Antonio in nineteen forty-three and growing up in west Texas, I come from a family of schoolteachers and preachers, band and choral directors, and artists and musicians. I wrote the story, which became this book, more than thirty-five years ago and for me, just as with Ahnsen’s shapes, it emerged from “the hidden”. Only recently have I begun to understand what the story is about and accept, as Ahnsen puts it, that “nothing is hidden”. 
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