Stephen J. Kieran

The Return of Rasputin Stephen J. Kieran

Nick Brody's as normally-neurotic as any other kid growing up in today's Idaho--until his compass is tested by one of the most magnetic personalities ever to walk the earth. How did he deserve this? Isn't life hard enough, with a Grandpa crazy enough to to bury roadkill & a Great-Grandma even worse?

But go back a hundred years--Rasputin's infamous as the man who wouldn't die, and his story has everything to do with Nick. Yes, Rasputin was poisoned. Yes, he was shot, yes he was beaten and stabbed. And yes, finally drowned--actually, maybe finally drowned. For a century, peasants have whispered that Rasputin would return, and this is not fiction. He was a hero to them, blessed with the power to cool fevers, stop bleeding and waken the unconscious. In his day, tales flew across Siberia and beyond, to the gilded palaces and opulence of St. Petersburg and the Tsar's inner circle. A man of God walked among them. And yet...how could a simple peasant rise to such heights? And what did he do to earn such a gruesome death?

Nick doesn't care. He finds himself hosting Rasputin without an invitation, and the guy's an unwanted pain-in-the-ass. Why is he here, today, unable to leave? What could this have to do with Nick? Nick's doing all he can to get off the farm and into an actual life--and this canNOT be part of the master plan.

Yet it is. No one asks us what's fair, no one tells us what's coming around the corner. And even if they did, would any of us believe it?