Jason Sawyer
Author.
Maps for Unrecovered Children: A Novel of Ontzetting
A brush with death came on an almost septenary schedule for orphan and hero Alden Dreifus. From the anguish Ewing’s sarcoma forced upon his childhood, to escaping a robbery-turned-mass murder; suffering three grueling tours in Iraq’s Nineveh Province, to surviving one of the worst commercial airline crashes in US history. But nothing could compare in exacting spiritual apathy as having lost his daughter, murdered by the man his longtime love, Hessa, had introduced into their lives while Alden answered his call a world away. What it would leave in its wake was a sense of debilitating purposelessness concerning his true place in the world and the universe to which held it in its volatile place.
A brush with death came on an almost septenary schedule for orphan and hero Alden Dreifus. From the anguish Ewing’s sarcoma forced upon his childhood, to escaping a robbery-turned-mass murder; suffering three grueling tours in Iraq’s Nineveh Province, to surviving one of the worst commercial airline crashes in US history. But nothing could compare in exacting spiritual apathy as having lost his daughter, murdered by the man his longtime love, Hessa, had introduced into their lives while Alden answered his call a world away. What it would leave in its wake was a sense of debilitating purposelessness concerning his true place in the world and the universe to which held it in its volatile place.
In a stunning turn of events, his true journey begins, unwittingly set into motion from long ago by Hessa. By using the tools afforded to him by past informants, military associates and the aid of a mysterious package sent from Montmartre, it would ultimately lead him to Amsterdam to locate his biological father, Martin—a former theoretical physics professor and a man of exceptional mettle, but who’d disappeared, rumored to be dead.
Upon the inevitable discovey of Martin’s whereabouts, Alden would uncover the truth concerning a man living a life shrouded in perpetual secrecy and false identity; but more importantly would share a compatibility of sorrows, manifested through the abduction of Martin’s son ten years prior.
Through their common survivorship and mutual longing for meaning, Martin will first introduce Alden to a life-altering spiritual awakening made possible by his adopted daughter Anika, who was once brutally victimized by one of Western Europe’s most notorious gangs until Martin bargained for her freedom and invested in her long-term rehabilitation. He would also offer a life equally inordinary and supremely dangerous as the orchestrator of a clandestine global organization. Its objective: to find and save other lost children, which required careful navigation of the oft seedy underworld of the Dutch drug trade, while infiltrating the lives and activities of the planet’s worst child murderers and sex traffickers.
MAPS FOR UNRECOVERED CHILDREN: A Novel of Ontzetting spans seven countries and dozens of lives, each one of them struggling to answer the unsolvable question of destiny and purpose, set against the oppositional backdrop of the cruel yet beautiful nature of the earth, its creatures and the cosmos.
A brush with death came on an almost septenary schedule for orphan and hero Alden Dreifus. From the anguish Ewing’s sarcoma forced upon his childhood, to escaping a robbery-turned-mass murder; suffering three grueling tours in Iraq’s Nineveh Province, to surviving one of the worst commercial airline crashes in US history. But nothing could compare in exacting spiritual apathy as having lost his daughter, murdered by the man his longtime love, Hessa, had introduced into their lives while Alden answered his call a world away. What it would leave in its wake was a sense of debilitating purposelessness concerning his true place in the world and the universe to which held it in its volatile place.
In a stunning turn of events, his true journey begins, unwittingly set into motion from long ago by Hessa. By using the tools afforded to him by past informants, military associates and the aid of a mysterious package sent from Montmartre, it would ultimately lead him to Amsterdam to locate his biological father, Martin—a former theoretical physics professor and a man of exceptional mettle, but who’d disappeared, rumored to be dead.
Upon the inevitable discovey of Martin’s whereabouts, Alden would uncover the truth concerning a man living a life shrouded in perpetual secrecy and false identity; but more importantly would share a compatibility of sorrows, manifested through the abduction of Martin’s son ten years prior.
Through their common survivorship and mutual longing for meaning, Martin will first introduce Alden to a life-altering spiritual awakening made possible by his adopted daughter Anika, who was once brutally victimized by one of Western Europe’s most notorious gangs until Martin bargained for her freedom and invested in her long-term rehabilitation. He would also offer a life equally inordinary and supremely dangerous as the orchestrator of a clandestine global organization. Its objective: to find and save other lost children, which required careful navigation of the oft seedy underworld of the Dutch drug trade, while infiltrating the lives and activities of the planet’s worst child murderers and sex traffickers.
MAPS FOR UNRECOVERED CHILDREN: A Novel of Ontzetting spans seven countries and dozens of lives, each one of them struggling to answer the unsolvable question of destiny and purpose, set against the oppositional backdrop of the cruel yet beautiful nature of the earth, its creatures and the cosmos.
My Story
Everyone, everywhere has a story. Here’s mine at a glance: I always knew I would write at least one novel. It started when I was around ten years of age when I had saved enough to purchase a vintage Brother electronic typewriter. I wrote mostly poetry and short stories, none of which ever survived. All I knew is that words were my mate, and my mate deserved an audience.
I first started this project around 2007. It had evolved over the years from its original concept to several reworked manuscripts about a son reuniting with his father to what it is today, contained within this ebook. It is my sincere wish that it constantly stirs the imagination, and brings equal measures of joy, sadness, laughter and hope.
My Hope
In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a miracle happened to me. I learned that due to my universal blood type, there was a chance I could become a live liver donor to my nephew, Aidan Yamashita, who was diagnosed with an extremely rare telomere biology disorder (TBD) as a teen. A life often filled with the mundane quickly allowed me to see the long view. I was witness to what a disease like this does to a parent (in this case, his mother). It consumes every thought, every action. It doesn’t rest. It won’t let up. Not until a cure can be found.
It would become a long journey, one initially filled with sadness, fear and worry…not for myself, but for Aidan. Less than a year later after rounds of testing and finally having been accepted as a donor by The Cleveland Clinic, the transplant was performed successfully. It is a first step. One I would gladly do over and over if only I could.
Since I can’t, I can do what little is laid out before me. Although it’s not much, 50% of the proceeds of Maps for Unrecovered Children: A Novel of Ontzetting will be donated to teamtelomere.org in the hope that a cure can someday right the health and wellbeing of those impacted by TBD.
Send Me A Message…
Got questions? Tell me what’s on your mind. Liked the book? Hated the book? I value all opinions. I’d love to chat.