Publisher's Synopsis
Chiaroscuro (kyar-uh-scoor-oh): The treatment of light and shade in drawing and paintingStom Carpenter is a nobody that everybody sort of sees. A silent giant in the high school hallways. Uncomfortable in his own soul, he yearns for the freedom of adulthood, never realizing that growing up comes with its own share of impossible problems.THE BLENDING OF LIGHT AND SHADOWWAS FAR EASIER ON PAPER THAN IT WAS IN REAL LIFEHe traded in his football helmet for a sketchbook, turning his world upside down. His creative path and his religious path have always run together, but not anymore. The ghosts of the past haunt him like tattered ropes hanging from old branches. The opponents on the football field were easy to see -- they wore uniforms. Now his opponents come in every shape and size -- from close loved ones, to local religious leaders, to shadows of memory barking up forgotten trees. Stom's dark night of the soul is on full display as he struggles to keep his light alive. His crumbling worldview gives way to the relentless pounding of the elements of flesh and spirit. His only option is failure in this strange new grown-up world filled with light and darkness and zero clear answers. Chiaroscuro dives into the internal and external pressures in the secret life of a teenage boy who wants the impossible -- for life to make sense. With only gray morality to guide him, even as truth falls away, what other options are there but chaos and inevitable self-destruction?-----175 pages34,500 words
