Root Memory

by Mark C. Walton

Since turning his back on the British post-punk music scene in the early eighties, Nero Bain has been on a downward slide. Now it's 2008, and while the financial world is teetering at the brink of a precipice, mild man of rock Nero has tipped over the edge of his own crisis and is admitted to a psychiatric unit. There he reflects on the passions of his '70s teenage years: music, his first and long lost love... and a plan to launch the first snail into space.

These days he's a rent collector for an uncompromising loan shark, Fin Dixey, but recent distractions have resulted in a misunderstanding over money. Nero decides to escape to the country from his seedy Oxford surroundings, embarking on the trip with friend and ex-roadie, Kevin.

While on the road, searching for a new direction to his life, Nero retrieves a screwed up scrap of paper bearing a short, cryptic instruction which leads him to meet with a succession of peculiar situations and individuals. In the process, he uncovers intriguing buried layers of his family history and experiences an intense visionary insight into the true meaning of empathy -- ultimately attempting an audacious and unorthodox solution to his problems.

293 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 14, 2014