The Shadow Cast

by Mike Broemmel

A faded film star, the mysterious genius who invented cocktail umbrellas, colorful widows on a Florida jaunt, a distorted travesty of a man in a secluded mental institution, a precocious kid coming of age, two hermits in a happy world of their own, a harmless and hapless stalker, Queen Victoria's stable boy and even Santa Claus ... 'The Shadow Cast' is a collection of twenty-two short stories . but a book debunking any claim that a whole cannot be greater than the sum of its parts. Each tale in Mike Broemmel's new anthology can proudly stand alone in the greatest tradition of story telling; but read in sequence his painstakingly ordered works pack the punch of an epic novel. They present a satisfyingly complete saga of stark, simple truth that is all but unique in the annals of fiction. People, places, periods develop and seamlessly intertwine, story-by-story. 'The Shadow Cast' is an insightful record of a reality we never realized existed before Broemmel. The shadow may sometimes represent shelter and escape, sometimes the umbrella that obscures so many of our quiet doings. The cast? The cast is you . you and the folks down the road apiece. It's about how you manage to share this world with him and with her as earthborn companions, fellow mortals.

316 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2004