Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen is the story of one little girl’s struggles to overcome generations of alcoholism.Leysa Henko immigrates to America from Russia with her family in 1917, with all the optimism of a four-year-old.
Leysa’s world begins to crumble when her abusive alcoholic father, Devak, opens a pub in Tallenook, Pennsylvania, during Prohibition.
When her adoring mother Ionna dies of tuberculosis, Leysa and her older sister Maryska are left at the mercy of Devak and his abusive bar cronies—the Monstermen.
Devak presses them into service to save his tavern by delivering vodka door-to-door—alone—to Tallenook’s horrific alcoholic “shut-ins.”
The spirits of family members passed on reach out to help Leysa.
As Leysa grows older and more bitter, she loses touch and her life spirals out of control.
Will Leysa find the peace she so desperately needs before alcoholism claims another generation of Henkos?
Leysa Henko’s struggles, and those of the characters in this book, are loosely based on people I’ve met throughout my life in the better – and worse – parts of this state.
Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen is the story of just one Pennsylvania family’s struggles, but the scenes in this morality play may well play out in thousands of households in some of the more despair-ridden corners of the state, if not across the United States.
I wanted to turn the tables on alcoholism as a disease and focus on the other victims, the real victims.
Groups such as Al-Anon and Alateen do such a tremendous job helping those victimized by alcoholism to live fulfilling lives and find peace that I decided to write a novel that focused on their struggles, on their daily triumphs and tragedies.
I hope this book helps those people who are impacted by this disease find a little peace in their lives.
Demon Alcohol And The Monstermen is available at Barnes&Noble and Amazon.com
Alcohol is a slow poison which spoils the life day by day. One should not make the habit of taking it daily.
ReplyDelete-------------
Ella
Alcohol Treatment
Hi Ella,
ReplyDeleteI'm Kenneth James Kirsch, author of Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen. Thank you for your post!
Exactly the point I was going for in my book! Alcoholism is a vicious disease, affecting generations before and after the alcoholic's own life. I wrote this book to show how the disease transcends generations and seems to follow certain families over decades and even centuries.
In the end, the main character, Leysa Henko, is able to overcome her disease.
All in all, Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen is a hopeful story of perserverance, recovery, and hope. It is my fervent wish that others like me who've been affected by this disease will get a chance to read Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen.
Blessings,
Kenneth James Kirsch