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Barnaby Smith
They always asked Barnaby, 'Why do you want to fly?' And he'd always reply, 'Why do you want to breathe?'"
Six months after her son committed suicide by jumping off a roof, psychiatrist Dr. Martha Lewis claims that she's ready to go back to work. She takes on a position at Brooklyn's St. Joseph's Hospital where she is given the charge of the most unusual Barnaby Smith. Barnaby has tried to fly, like a bird, his entire life. He has jumped off roofs nine times, he has broken every bone in his body … and he has been at St. Joseph's, heavily medicated, for the past twenty-three years for his own safety. Mesmerized by Barnaby Smith, Martha makes it her obsession to bring this man back into life, to show him that life is worth living. If she can do that, if she can convince him, then just maybe she'll manage to convince herself, too.
Join Martha and Barnaby on a most unusual quest that takes them halfway around the world in this story about life and death, love and friendship, trust and belief, compromise and freedom ... and yes, the dream and the impossibility of human flight.
Six months after her son committed suicide by jumping off a roof, psychiatrist Dr. Martha Lewis claims that she's ready to go back to work. She takes on a position at Brooklyn's St. Joseph's Hospital where she is given the charge of the most unusual Barnaby Smith. Barnaby has tried to fly, like a bird, his entire life. He has jumped off roofs nine times, he has broken every bone in his body … and he has been at St. Joseph's, heavily medicated, for the past twenty-three years for his own safety. Mesmerized by Barnaby Smith, Martha makes it her obsession to bring this man back into life, to show him that life is worth living. If she can do that, if she can convince him, then just maybe she'll manage to convince herself, too.
Join Martha and Barnaby on a most unusual quest that takes them halfway around the world in this story about life and death, love and friendship, trust and belief, compromise and freedom ... and yes, the dream and the impossibility of human flight.
- GenresFiction
166 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 5, 2015
55 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Martin Eckhart
19 books32 followersDaniel Martin Eckhart is the author of the novels The Champ, Barnaby Smith, Home, Tales of Wychwood and The Sweet-Maker of Connemara.
Eckhart has written screenplays for more than two decades, has published several of his original screenplays in the Eckhart Screenplays series and shared his experiences about the life of a screenwriter in his book, Write, Write, Write.
Before focusing on his writing career, Eckhart served in the Swiss military, guarded the Pope's life in the Vatican, worked for the United Nations, driving trucks across the Sinai Desert, delivering diplomatic mail to Damascus and driving armored limousines in Beirut. After five adventurous years in Israel, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, Eckhart quit the UN to study acting in New York at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where he discovered screenwriting. He has penned several feature-length movies, worked on TV shows and has adapted novels for the small screen.
Eckhart lives with his family on a 17th century farm in Switzerland.
Eckhart has written screenplays for more than two decades, has published several of his original screenplays in the Eckhart Screenplays series and shared his experiences about the life of a screenwriter in his book, Write, Write, Write.
Before focusing on his writing career, Eckhart served in the Swiss military, guarded the Pope's life in the Vatican, worked for the United Nations, driving trucks across the Sinai Desert, delivering diplomatic mail to Damascus and driving armored limousines in Beirut. After five adventurous years in Israel, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, Eckhart quit the UN to study acting in New York at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where he discovered screenwriting. He has penned several feature-length movies, worked on TV shows and has adapted novels for the small screen.
Eckhart lives with his family on a 17th century farm in Switzerland.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 1, 2015
This is an engrossing book that takes you from a mental hospital in the US, across continents to Nepal. The book follows the exploits of the good doctor, psychiatrist Martha Lewis, the patient, Barnaby Smith and his faithful nurse attendant, Bharad Kadam. Barnaby believes he can fly and the premise of the book revolves around Martha and Bharad trying to save him from himself. The book takes a number of twists and turns and arrives at an uncommon conclusion. It was a crisp, good read and I am looking forward to more books by this talented author.
May 4, 2015
Got this on a whim as a kindle deal. Wow wow wow. Unbelievable. Great story with a mystical twist. Gives you goosebumps and you will smile for days. Cry for days. Start googling flying monks. Wow. Why are there only five ratings?
May 4, 2015
full of Hope and then disappointment and finally infinate HOPE.
A journey worth taking. Don't miss out on this amazing trip through the lives of wonderful people. You will be the richer for the experience.
A journey worth taking. Don't miss out on this amazing trip through the lives of wonderful people. You will be the richer for the experience.
April 6, 2022
Gave up reading this book properly as I found myself seriously irritated by one of the main characters, that being the psychiatrist who'd got it into her head that she could 'help' the guy who was in a secure home because a mental condition (probably a type of autism) had led him to think he could fly (like a bird) - and he'd already tried 9 times to do so, surviving physically each time but was broken, and remained severely mentally challenged.
The doctor had just lost her son to suicide (he'd leapt from a tall building, aged 15) - and she obviously hadn't come to terms with her loss. She therefore equated 'helping' Barnaby somehow to 'saving her own sanity'. She felt guilty that she hadn't been able to save her son so maybe she could save Barnaby. She and his nurse eventually kidnapped Barnaby and took him to Nepal. Seriously? Like that could happen in real life! I skipped about half the book just before that point - taking up the story again where Barnaby decided to take his 'last flight'.
Wow. Such a convoluted story which ultimately led to failure. Except for the doctor - who had gotten away with 'escaping' with the object of her desire (to rehabilitate and take away his inner urge to fly.) Didn't work. He jumped from a cliff. Tried to fly. Again. Died.
The doc became a buddhist nun in Nepal. She had found her peace (the book didn't go into how she had done this after the trauma of watching Barnaby's flight into the abyss.) She ended up OK, and her long-term friend found her eventually and stayed in Nepal. Really? Totally unbelievable.
I really don't get the reasoning behind writing such a depressing, irritating and weird story. To give insight into how autism can make some people feel and how it affects their ability to reason? As a psychiatrist, the doc should have known from the start that, despite her inner desires or urges to 'cure' him, her efforts to help Barnaby would be doomed.
Some people can't be helped through trying to reason with them (Barnaby). Some don't want to be helped by others (the doc AND Barnaby, both for different reasons). And some people take it upon themselves to achieve some sort of redemption through trying to help a sick person - which ultimately doesn't have the desired effect.
I know it's just a story but I question how a person who had been mentally broken by the suicide of her son could be in a fit enough mental state to even begin to help someone like Barnaby, whose desire to fly appeared to be innate, part of his mental makeup. Her condition was brought about by trauma. His condition came by birth. Not the same at all.
The doctor had just lost her son to suicide (he'd leapt from a tall building, aged 15) - and she obviously hadn't come to terms with her loss. She therefore equated 'helping' Barnaby somehow to 'saving her own sanity'. She felt guilty that she hadn't been able to save her son so maybe she could save Barnaby. She and his nurse eventually kidnapped Barnaby and took him to Nepal. Seriously? Like that could happen in real life! I skipped about half the book just before that point - taking up the story again where Barnaby decided to take his 'last flight'.
Wow. Such a convoluted story which ultimately led to failure. Except for the doctor - who had gotten away with 'escaping' with the object of her desire (to rehabilitate and take away his inner urge to fly.) Didn't work. He jumped from a cliff. Tried to fly. Again. Died.
The doc became a buddhist nun in Nepal. She had found her peace (the book didn't go into how she had done this after the trauma of watching Barnaby's flight into the abyss.) She ended up OK, and her long-term friend found her eventually and stayed in Nepal. Really? Totally unbelievable.
I really don't get the reasoning behind writing such a depressing, irritating and weird story. To give insight into how autism can make some people feel and how it affects their ability to reason? As a psychiatrist, the doc should have known from the start that, despite her inner desires or urges to 'cure' him, her efforts to help Barnaby would be doomed.
Some people can't be helped through trying to reason with them (Barnaby). Some don't want to be helped by others (the doc AND Barnaby, both for different reasons). And some people take it upon themselves to achieve some sort of redemption through trying to help a sick person - which ultimately doesn't have the desired effect.
I know it's just a story but I question how a person who had been mentally broken by the suicide of her son could be in a fit enough mental state to even begin to help someone like Barnaby, whose desire to fly appeared to be innate, part of his mental makeup. Her condition was brought about by trauma. His condition came by birth. Not the same at all.
May 20, 2023
Dr. Martha Lewis returns to work just six months after the tragic death of her son by suicide. Her son died after jumping from a building. Of course, Martha blames herself, both as a mother and a psychiatrist.
She begins working at Brooklyn's St. Joseph's Hospital, where she encounters Barnaby Smith. Barnaby has survived jumping from different roofs nine times. He isn't suicidal. He wants to fly, like a bird.
Martha couldn't save her son, so she becomes consumed with saving Barnaby.
This book is compelling. It is a story of grief and loss and death, but also of love and friendship and sacrifice.
The author does an amazing job of balancing the heavier components of this book with the more whimsical aspects. That didn't feel clunky at all.
To be fair, there is 0% chance that a mere six months after losing a son in a horrific way that a psychiatrist would be allowed to supervise a patient that seems to be suffering from delusions that cause the patient to engage in behaviors that are so parallel the death of their son. I get that. But be willing to suspend disbelief and follow Martha and Barnaby on their journey to see if man can really fly like a bird.
She begins working at Brooklyn's St. Joseph's Hospital, where she encounters Barnaby Smith. Barnaby has survived jumping from different roofs nine times. He isn't suicidal. He wants to fly, like a bird.
Martha couldn't save her son, so she becomes consumed with saving Barnaby.
This book is compelling. It is a story of grief and loss and death, but also of love and friendship and sacrifice.
The author does an amazing job of balancing the heavier components of this book with the more whimsical aspects. That didn't feel clunky at all.
To be fair, there is 0% chance that a mere six months after losing a son in a horrific way that a psychiatrist would be allowed to supervise a patient that seems to be suffering from delusions that cause the patient to engage in behaviors that are so parallel the death of their son. I get that. But be willing to suspend disbelief and follow Martha and Barnaby on their journey to see if man can really fly like a bird.
June 26, 2023
Barnaby Smith -
This was a very entertaining book. Not what I expected when I started reading but I'm glad I finished it.
This was a very entertaining book. Not what I expected when I started reading but I'm glad I finished it.
August 30, 2016
A powerful book
I don't usually describe a book as powerful. But this one is really a gem. It is warm yet cold, strong yet soft. I could not even start to describe my feeling. A truly powerful, gentle, inspiring piece of art.
I don't usually describe a book as powerful. But this one is really a gem. It is warm yet cold, strong yet soft. I could not even start to describe my feeling. A truly powerful, gentle, inspiring piece of art.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews