The Griefmaker

<p><strong>A gripping finely crafted read with a cast of compelling characters. High-school friends and rivals Tenbrook and Pillars find themselves on opposite sides of a barbed wire fence when one decides to plow and develop the native prairie they hunted together as youths. Gurley lays bare a boiling feud pitting preservationist against developer working man against moneyed power and old values against new desires. <em>The Griefmaker</em> digs at the edges of our social unrest turns over new ground in unearthing what motivates people to greed and what motivates others to love. </strong></p><p><strong>The rolling fields of Kansas are the backdrop of this epic tale of conflict unrequited love self-discovery and redemption. Tenbrook and Pillars played football together in school and as they enter middle-age they now play a game of chicken gambling with the women they desire the land they both cherish and the underworld. At stake is the fate of the Griefmaker a thousand acre piece of virgin prairie never broken by a plow. Once owned by Tenbrook's family the Griefmaker is now in the hands of Pillars. Tenbrook wants to preserve the prairie; Pillars want to develop it. When Pillars plows up the Griefmaker the stage is set for a conflict that leads to crime and violence.</strong></p><p><strong>For Tenbrook the Griefmaker is not just a priceless remnant of the tallgrass prairie-it's also a sanctuary for the soul. Filled with the haunting beauty and wide brimless skies of Kansas as well as the hedonistic opulence of a tropical island The Griefmaker lays bare the American struggle for progress and tradition. A story of love death and perhaps atonement. Readers who enjoyed John Ford's Canada Cormac McCarthy's </strong><em>Sutree</em> Ian McEwan's <em>Amsterdam</em> and Edna O'Brien's <em>Wild Decembers</em> will enjoy <em>The Griefmaker. </em></p>