Amazing Tale of Anna Himmel and the Gold Sovereign / Matador (ePub)

Five stories, five people, mysteriously connected by a gold sovereign. A young soldier critically wounded at Passchendaele. A mute little girl in 2004, having to find her voice to commit a great act of bravery. A young gay man facing terrible evil in 1960's Manchester. A homeless woman struggling to stay alive on the freezing streets of London in 1902. In the present day, Martin Griegson, a redundant banker exposed to the darker aspects of contemporary gay London. In 1878, Anna Himmel leaves her family home in Bavaria to emigrate to New York. Through a chance meeting of the man who will later become her husband, she travels instead to London, a decision that changes her life and the lives of her descendants for generations to come. Settling in Whitechapel, she makes friends with a group of street prostitutes who will lead her towards her destiny. In 2011, Martin Griegson learns that Anna Himmel is one of his ancestors. He is intrigued to find that somehow a gold sovereign that belonged to her connects the stories of his family and friends. Employed at an LGBT outreach centre in Soho by Iris and Olga, who have their own stories to tell, following on from the events of The Lost Boy, the Doodlebug and the mysterious number 80 - Stevie Henden's first novel - Martin embarks on a personal journey of learning, where he has to eventually confront his own demons. The Amazing Tale of Anna Himmel and the Gold Sovereign explores the determination and multi-faceted nature of the human spirit and different aspects of love; motherly, faithful, unconditional and enduring, through to obsessional. The book asks questions about how our own lives are affected by the people we meet and the choices that we make - and how the seemingly random acts of fate that lead us toward our final destiny may not be so random at all... This multi-layered, evocative novel will appeal to adult readers who enjoy gay and fantasy fiction.