Author John Crawley Pens New Novel, THE END

Author John Crawley announces the publication of his 15th novel, The End, currently available on Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/shop/john-crawley/the-end/paperback/product-22364452.html

And, available soon at your favorite bookstore.

The End is centered around the issue of a patient's right to die with dignity. Set in Oregon in the late 1990's, Lucy Brooks, a schoolteacher and her partner, Christine Bentley, a rising art star in the Pacific Northwest, are faced with the harsh reality that Lucy has a very aggressive strain of cancer that has metastasized throughout her body and she is going to die. But worse, the doctors warn them that this cancer is violently painful in the final days.

Lucy decides to seek assistance with Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, a law allowing terminally ill patients to end their lives at an appropriate time before long-term suffering ensues. Unfortunately for Lucy and for Christine, Oregon does not, at that time, recognize their union as an official marriage. Christine can't represent Lucy in any legal matters. When Lucy lapses into a coma before they can act on her life termination wishes, it leaves her estranged brother, Father Walter Brooks, as the sole next-of-kin, who is needed to sign the life termination documents.

Father Brooks is a headstrong Catholic priest who has already stood up to the Vatican on matters of principle in his own parish and faced excommunication, but won a reprieve from the Pope himself. Many eyes are on Walter. He feels as if he has crosshairs on his back everyday. For the sake of his career and his faith, he fights the process his dying sister has requested he follow.

Partly because of his stubbornness and partly because he holds his sister's lifestyle against her, the two have not spoken in almost two decades. It is left to Christine, herself bitter that Lucy has chosen not to fight the cancer but rather limp to her own self-induced finish line, to change Walter's very pious mind.

The Priest and his sister's lover have to come to terms with Lucy's end of life requests and her last testament. They have to come to grips with the reality of her fading life and the pain she is enduring. And they have to begin to trust one another to put Lucy's best interest ahead of their own motives.

Crawley Discusses The End

"Your final act in life is to ask your brother to do one last thing for you. But he refuses. He can't. His faith won't allow it. All you want to do is die in peace," This is the premise of my 15th novel, The End.

"The End is about the reality that death is the final act of life and the leaving of this world should be as peaceful and comforting as possible. It is also about the myriad of institutions and beliefs standing in the way of the Death with Dignity movement from moral, religious and political oppositions.

"I hope that The End is the beginning of many conversations about this vital topic. My own father, a medical doctor, thought we spent far too much time energy and resources on keeping the terminally ill medically alive, instead of comfortable in death. I agree with him."

About John Crawley
John Crawley is a Dallas, Texas-based writer. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Crawley is the author of the award-winning novels, The Man on the Grassy Knoll, Stuff, Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt, The Myth Makers, Perfect Food as well Fishing Lessons. Visit http://www.johncrawleybooks.com
Praise for John Crawley's Perfect Food

"Had I known what I know now, I would have probably been a vegetarian my while life. Even that wouldn't have saved me from the fate that awaits a country in John Crawley's The Perfect Food.

"The book is a masterfully-told tale by Scott Keen, one of John's recurring characters. It is about greed and the shameless lack of morals at the very top of our political food chain. The Perfect Food will remind you, you are what you eat. It will also drive home the truth: You are how you vote, and will be until you have the fortitude to stand up and say, 'Enough already, enough.'" - Janice de Long, Atlanta, GA.
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