The Bicycle Messenger

<p>In the 1970s when a distant cousin dies unexpectedly Mary Ellen and Charles Hawley agree to take his seven-year-old son Steven into their home. Steven's birth mother a Polish immigrant has schizophrenia and can't assume custody. But in a last traumatic visit she convinces her son that a mysterious presence called the bicycle messenger has followed him into his new life.</p><p></p><p>Years later Steven a recovering alcoholic with a history of bipolar disorder is working as a short-order cook. To Megan Helmsworth a college student waiting tables he is a sweet doting boyfriend. But Steven becomes more and more preoccupied with his lost family of origin and when a manic swing sends him on a quixotic journey to Poland Megan seizes her chance to escape. In a well-meaning attempt to shelter her fragile son Mary Ellen agrees to harbor a secret no mother should ever keep.</p><p></p><p>Told through the eyes of the three women who love Steven best-Mary Ellen Megan and his adoptive sister Margaret-<em>The Bicycle Messenger </em>is a story of generational trauma that stretches from the last days of the Kraków ghetto in 1942 all the way to 2016. But it is also a story of unexpected grace.</p>