Teacher turned author
There is no stopping physics teacher turned author Paul Ryan of Warragul upon releasing his debut novel “Bitter Harvest”.
After almost two years of work, Paul released of the historical fiction novel loosely inspired by tales of his in-laws in Germany.
“I’ve always written but never had anything published before,” said Paul who relished the writing process. “I was surprised that it expanded to the extent that it did.”
Having completed and self-published the almost 500-page novel, Paul plans to continue writing. “There’s no stopping me now,” he said. A farmer and teacher – maths and physics, not English as you might expect - Paul recently moved to Warragul from Seaview.
Paul said Bitter Harvest had two parallel storylines. The first tells of a fundamentally normal couple on a dream European holiday who arrive in the French countryside. To escape a contemptable landlord at their accommodation, they visit a memorial commemorating the Battle of the Bulge. Viewing footage of a boy in a US uniform starts a mystery which takes them on a trek across Germany and Poland.
The second tells of the young Bernd who enlists into the Kriegsmarine (U-boats) during World War II. His story includes him falling for the bewitching Hanna and unspeakable realities of war.
Paul said the second storyline was derived from his wife’s family. It is set in the territory where his mother-in-law grew up and loosely built upon his father-in-law’s involvement building U-boats.
Paul said he hadn’t told many people about his debut novel, admitting to feeling abashed and keeping it under the radar…until now.
Bitter Harvest is available from Need2Read in Warragul as well as on Amazon, including an ebook version. The cost is about $25.