Off Switch

by Tom Stohlgren

It could happen to any of us. A lovable, irreverent high school teacher from Los Angeles, Evan Doherty, passes out in an Irish pub and is sentenced by his wife to an ultra-strict Catholic rehab center. If Evan doesn’t convert and complete the four-week program, he can kiss his wife and daughter goodbye. On the surface, well-intentioned discipline trumps much needed compassion, and personal ideologies collide with long-held beliefs in a higher power to complicate the treatment of this common disease that ruins lives. On a deeper level, the story investigates the societal costs of immediate gratification, and an ancient resistance of human beings to change (in many important ways). Evan discovers the power of ‘keeping your loved ones in your head’—as the key to his “Off Switch.” Will his internal power triumph over his demons, and return him to the family he loves?

290 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2011