**Every once in awhile, you read a book in which every element fits together so perfectly that you just sit back in awe at the skill of the storyteller. *Then Like the Blind Man *is one of these books*.  -- *San Francisco Book Review**

While fiction about the 1950s Civil Rights era is far from rare, few capture the period and struggles from the perspective of a white child.

**Synopsis:**

A storm is brewing in the all-but-forgotten back country of Kentucky. And, for young Orbie Ray, the swirling heavens may just have the power to tear open his family's darkest secrets. ***Then Like the Blind Man ***tells the story of a white youth cast aside in the segregated South of the 1950s, and the forces he must overcome to restore order to his world.

Nine-year-old Orbie already has his cross to bear. After the death of his father, his mother Ruby has off and married Victor, a slick-talking man with a snake tattoo. Orbie hates his stepfather more than he can stand, a fact that lands him at his grandparents' place in Harlan's Crossroads, Kentucky. Orbie grudgingly adjusts to life with his doting Granny and carping Granpaw, who are a bit too keen on their black neighbors for Orbie's taste, not to mention the local Pentecostal congregation of snake handlers. Soon, however, he finds his worldviews changing, particularly when it comes to matters of race, religion and the true cause of his father's death.

Equal parts Hamlet and Huckleberry Finn, ***Then Like the Blind Man* **is certain to resonate with lovers of literary as well as historical fiction, particularly in the grand Southern tradition of storytelling.

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* **(2013) ABNA Quarter Finalist**
* **Received IR Discovery Award for Best in Literary Fiction (2013)**
* **(2014 )Finalist for Kindle Book Review's Literary Fiction Award.**
* **Received Kirkus Review's STAR for exceptional merit. Featured in Kirkus Reviews Magazine (January, 2014)**
* **Retailers, Libraries and Educators can get the book through Ingram Wholesale.**
* **An Amazon Bestseller.**
* **Now Available In Bookstores!**

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Down for Reviews...**

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### Review

...Owens captures his characters' folksy Appalachian diction without overdoing it. He also renders a child's viewpoint with great psychological sensitivity: "I didn't like the way [Victor] was all the time trying to be on my mind. It was too close together somehow--like when Momma started talking about Jesus and wouldn't shut up."
A psychologically astute... and satisfying novel.
*** Starred Kirkus Review ***

Every once in awhile, you read a book in which every element fits together so perfectly that you just sit back in awe at the skill of the storyteller. Then Like the Blind Man is one of these books. 
*** The San Francisco Book Review ***

In an American coming-of-age novel, the author presents a stunning story with clarity and historical accuracy, rich in illuminating the Appalachian culture of the time period. ...[It] brings history alive, depicting American union labor practices and the racial prejudices that were so prevalent in the 1950's.
*** Publisher's Weekly ***

The weight of the world was never meant for the young. With much of faith andlearning, "Then Like the Blind Man" is a strong addition to generalfiction collections with a focus on coming of age tales.
***John Taylor/ The Midwest Book Review***

Orbie's sharecropping grandparents, by defying convention with unnerving grace, become founts of colloquial wisdom whose appeal is impossible to resist, and the Orbie they nurture -- the best version of a boy who may otherwise have been lost -- is someone the reader comes to love.
*** Michelle Schingler / ForeWord Book Review ***

The magical undercurrent that runs through the story adds to its feeling of other-worldliness, and the symbolism is both omnipresent and beautifully handled...
*** Catherine Langrehr / The Indie Reader ***

### From the Author

**Chicken Shock**

Two memories served as starting points for a short story I wrote that eventually became thisnovel. One was of my Kentucky grandmother as she emerged from a shedwith a white chicken held upside down in one of her strong bony hands.I, a boy of nine and a 'city slicker' from Detroit, looked on inwonderment and horror as she summarily wrung the poor creature's neck.It ran about the yard frantically, yes incredibly, as if trying tolocate something it had misplaced as if the known world could be setright again, recreated, if only that one thing was found. And then ofcourse it died. The second memory was of lantern light reflected offstones that lay on either side of a path to a storm cellar me and mygrandparents were headed for one stormy night beneath a tornado'sapproaching din. There was wonderment there too, along with a vast andlooming sense of impending doom.

Enjoy The Read!

**Freddie Owens**