by Susan Ector Ward
Available in paperback, Kindle and audio editions
I am saying that justice can never be satisfied by suffering. -George MacDonald
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“…compelling, and engaging.
You manage to capture the reader’s emotions,
and make them want to finish the stories.
…clever analogy … very thought provoking … intellectual…”
Linda and Bob Harrington, authors of
A Testimony for Earth and other titles including The Soul Solution
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Innocence, unbridled passion, betrayal, hurt, and healing are all here in straightforward simplicity driving the diptych into deep contrasts. Rich imagery with dynamic rhythm and intense passions bring the reader to shocking conclusions.
Social controversy stirred by Justice, A Two Sons Diptych is sure to be intense and enduring.
The theological challenge is unsettling. Must justice always balance crime with punishment?
This book challenges a classic concept of justice.
The shift elevates principles of empathy and reform above the rule of retribution and punishment.
In each of the two stories, the father embodies the justice system while the son plays out the effect of each system.
Justice, A Two Sons Diptych will stimulate deep and disconcerting deliberation long after the reader finishes.
Part I: Anatoly Petrovich
Set in Post-Stalinist USSR: Anatoly’s wife Anya’s extra-marital affair has inadvertently caused Anatoly’s arrest and ten year imprisonment.
“Anastasia answered the door of the attic apartment wearing a ragged robe,
her hair falling down on one side.”
The story opens with a visit from Anya’s brother Mikhail.
Part II: Caesar Emeritus
Set in a fictional, isolated medieval city-state
“Caesar Emeritus was a reasonable man, his plans and precautions immaculate. Peace and good order ruled in the city under his wise and benevolent hand.”
The reader soon learns the contrary.
Why a Diptych?
Definition: a painting, especially an altarpiece, on two hinged wooden panels that may be closed like a book.
Nearly every art form uses diptychs.
The contrast I sought for my meditation on justice seemed best expressed in a literary diptych, and as described in the excerpt below.
“The diptych can’t escape this rule of three, and perhaps this is also part of its power.
Just as the triptych is secretly a portrait, the diptych is, in a sense, a triptych. In our hunger for three,
the two panels of the diptych begin an investigation that must continue in the viewer,
whose mind becomes the third, middle, focal panel. The transaction is silent,
but the viewer receives responsibility in the investigation. The viewer is needed.
The viewer completes the diptych. The viewer of the diptych becomes maker.”
REGARDING DIPTYCHS by Eric Dean Wilson,
The American Reader, http://theamericanreader.com/regarding-diptychs/
Justice, A Two Sons Diptych is Literary Fiction.
“Literary Fiction must comment on something significant,
such as social or political issues, or the human condition.”
In this case Justice is the issue considered.
The two stories it contains draw attention to the sharp contrast within our concept of Justice.
In thinking back and forth between the two stories, the reader begins to ask, “What is Justice?”
The diptych uses the son in each part to reveal the nature of the father, who is the justice system of each.
This contemplation of Justice is very important as our world develops a global culture. Our definition of justice drives the very law system we choose.
Justice, A Two Sons Diptych is available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions, as well as an AudioBook masterfully narrated by Rob Goll.
Narrator Rob Goll is a UK trained classical actor and voice artist. His bold, memorable characterizations are spoken in a warm, reassuring vocal tone with compelling emotional truth. His audio credits include more than 20 audio books.
Author’s Apologia for Justice, A Two Sons Diptych
The Word in Vision 