The Green Pear

The Green Pear is the second book in The Harrisburg Trilogy, following The Blue Orchard. As a boy growing up in a bi-racial household in 1960's Harrisburg, Pa, Walker Leighton-Drexler suffers a series of tragedies that leave him without a family. Many questions about his identity and his origins consume him. As an adult he chooses to live on the Italian Riviera mainly because as a resort destination he is able to blend in among the sea of global visitors thereby avoiding questions about the past. Over time a series of romantic explorations lead him toward a partner with the capacity to develop a unique and natural sexual equation for love. The Green Pear is a literary novel that explores the relationships and random forces that join to shape any person's life and identity: from a painful childhood event in rural Pennsylvania to reconnection, travel, experimentation, a cooking magic show, scandal, loss and a new sense of belonging on the Italian Riviera. The characters in The Green Pear explore family dynamics, identity, and social issues, particularly those related to education, religion, race and class. In contemplating the lives of these characters, through scintillating and sometimes dramatic conversation, this story reveals a theme that examines and challenges the judgement that often sees institutional prestige and systems of power, undermining free expression in literature, art and life.