Of Metal and Earth

An Amazon Best Seller. Finalist in the 2018 IAN Book of the Year awards in the category of Literary / General fiction. Winner of the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the category of First Novel.

Of Metal and Earth is an emotional journey of car ownership, a must read book for modern and classic automotive enthusiasts and the perfect gift for anyone who loves books about cars.

It tells the story of seven owners of a little green Jeep, connected by their failures, neglect, and restorations. Through their eyes, forty years of car ownership results in reconciliation through a story that’s easy to fall into and hard to let go of.

The book begins in 1964, when James survives the Vietnam War by hiding beneath a little green Jeep, watching his friends die on the battlefield. He returns home emotionally paralyzed with nothing to fight for and turns to the only salvation he knows, buying a little green Jeep of his own. When he gets a flat tire on the road out of town, he is forced to ask the elderly owner of a farm for help. There, he finds more than just the tools to fix his car. He finds a job and, among the rolling hills, he finds comforting isolation, contentment, and Claire. Getting to know her jeopardizes the seclusion he relies on, a risk that pays off when they start a family and James finds a part of himself that he thought he’d lost forever.

But soon, the life they built is threatened. James could lose Claire and everything he loves forever. He must seek salvation once more - in the form of his little green Jeep.

Over the next thirty years, the Jeep changes hands, passing between friends, family, strangers, and lovers. A single mother buys a car for her reckless son and destroys a friendship with a man who silently loved her for two decades. An insecure youth at the start of his career learns that the most important lessons are the ones you never set out to learn. A family torn apart by their differences finds that love can be the hardest road to take. And a city architect who must choose between the easy way out, abandoning his grandfather’s dying wish to save the car, or a difficult path to restoration that could save more than just a little green Jeep.