Book Review: “The Book of Wounded Healers”

About The Book of Wounded Healers

Ben Matthews is a mathematical linguist studying spontaneous languages at Columbia University in New York City. Recently home from committing himself to a northern New Hampshire psychiatric center, he spends a relaxing late-May day bonding with his son, Jimmy, at South Street Seaport.

They’re watching a juggler when the East River to Brooklyn and beyond becomes a white sand desert. A sirocco wind raises waves and whips ice cream wrappers, crumpled napkins, visitor guides, ticket stubs, and other ground level trash in town.

Three creatures, their images shimmering in the heat like a mirage, walk across the sand towards The Battery and TriBeCa South. Ben is knocked down and loses track of Jiminy as people race to safety.

The desert fades away, the sirocco recedes, and the three creatures walk up to Ben. The one in front says, “We are Healers from the Land of Barass.” It points to the one on its right. “He is Cetaf, who cries for his own pain.” It turns to the one on its left. “This is Jenreel, who tends to his own needs. I am Beriah. I will tell you how I feel.”

The creature offers Ben its hand. “We are Healers from the Land of Barass.”
All Ben can think of to say is “I’ve lost my little boy.”
Beriah helps him up. “Then you must find him.”

Ben, aided by The Healers from the Land of Barass, embarks on a quest through Manhattan and learns he’s lost much more than his son, and finds much more in himself.

My Review of The Book of Wounded Healers

I requested a review copy because I know Joseph Carrabis writes fiction that makes you think. Every book of his I’ve read, I’ve learned something from, as well as being thoroughly entertained. I have read and reviewed several of his books and you can find those reviews at the following links:

• Search
• The Shaman
• The Inheritors
• Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Camfires
• That Th!nk That You Do

I received a digital copy of of The Book of Wounded Healers from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

The Book of Wounded Healers is a journey into the truths of humanity through the eyes of a man named Ben, who loses his son in the confusion, upon the arrival of three visitors, ambassadors from the Land of Barass. Once Ben’s son, Jiminy, is safe, he goes on a walk-about over the island of Manhatten with the alien tourists, and he learns to see, as they do, stirring his own memories, and bringing him revelations about himself and his fellow human beings.

I am not a mathematician, and I won’t claim to understand the formulas Ben uses to explain the truths of the human condition. But I understood enough to relate many of them to my own life and know they are valid. The revelations that Ben makes for himself can be applied to our own lives.

A tale of truths, brilliantly woven into the tapestry of a story. I give The Book of Wounded Healers five quills.

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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.