Beech River Books

Don Germain is a retired educator who has devoted much of his time in retirement to writing. Jon Holland – The Shadow Self  is the first book in a novel series dedicated to the people whose resilience, perseverance, and vision have helped to forge the great American dream.

Jon Holland: The Shadow Self (Beech River Books, 2018) is a novel set in the Civil War period and also in colonial Canada and the northern English colonies one hundred years earlier. It is the first book in a trilogy.

It is April of 1861 and young Irish immigrant Jon Holland is thrust headlong into the carnage of the American Civil War. The horrors of the conflagration cause him to struggle with his identity, testing his doggedness, challenging his principles, and undermining his will to live. His mysterious bond with his ancient ancestors fortifies his fervor for freedom and strengthens his resolve to forge good from evil. But voices emanating from an antique watch defy him and apparitions from an uncertain past haunt him, bringing him to the precipice of self-destruction. Through the teachings of those who laid the footprints in the sand before him, Jon races from one conflict to another seeking the truth about an ancient legacy found in the soul of the Shadow Self.

One hundred years prior to Jon’s arrival in America, a French Acadian trapper struggles to survive in the untamed wilderness of Canada and Colonial New York. His path to find personal freedom draws him into an eddy of conflict as murder, mystery, and a relentless manhunt mark his path through life. Through his relationship with a quirky boatman, a mysterious Mohawk princess, and a band of First Nation warriors, he sets in motion a bizarre legacy conjured up by an ancient chief. As his life twists and turns through a maze of emotional discord, the path to the Legacy of the Shadow Self begins to unfold.