Garden City, NY. Morgan James Publishing | IPS (7/28/2022)

Paperback.

Redemption: The Two Lives of Harry Brooks is a work of historical fiction based on the life of Brooks Eason's grandfather.

In the first half of Harry's life, he embezzled money from the Uniontown, PA, school district where he was the elected superintendent, left his wife for another woman, and sought to escape by booking passage on a Cunard liner to Liverpool. But his plan was foiled, Scotland Yard arrested him when the ship docked, and he was extradited, tried, convicted, and served three years in Western Penitentiary in Pittsburgh. In the second half of Harry's life, he came to the South, where he spent his last thirty-five years as a revered and successful Methodist minister and church official. He was a district superintendent overseeing a hundred congregations at the time of his death in 1942. In 1934, when President Roosevelt spoke to a crowd of 75,000 in North Mississippi, Harry was chosen to give the invocation. Nobody in the huge crown knew the preacher at the lectern was an ex-con. Redemption: The Two Lives of Harry Brooks entertains readers with a fascinating story and uses Harry's life to illustrate important principles of theology, principally that all men are sinners but that even the worst of sinners are capable of redemption. It is unique and appealing because it's based on a true story of a man who could have given up when he lost everything, but instead he persevered. Redemption: The Two Lives of Harry Brooks appeals to audiences who are interested in an inspiring story of overcoming hardship.

Brooks Eason is the author of Travels with Bobby, a travelogue about hiking trips with his best friend; Fortunate Son, a memoir about his adoption as an infant and discovery of his birth mother's identity when he was nearly fifty; and Bedtime with Buster, which consists entirely of conversations between him and his beloved mixed-breed dog. Fortunate Son was nominated for best nonfiction work by a Mississippi author in 2020. Eason is a mostly retired lawyer and has an undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi and a law degree from Duke. He grew up in Tupelo, MS, and lives in Madison, MS, with his wife Carrie, their two dogs, and a cat. He has three children and five grandchildren.