The inspiration for The Passion of Valentino Santi is the author’s late maternal grandmother. Her devout beliefs, like most of her fellow Alabamians, were immersed in the Christian concept of the End of Days and the wonders thought to herald its arrival.
Priest, a staunch spiritual independent, remembers: “I asked myself, after a particularly violent and depressing news day, what if we missed the signs? What if these days, days void of love and compassion, are the last days? What if we are living unknowingly in a spiritual wasteland, a dark age of decay, in desperate need of recovery?”.
Dé Avery La Monte Priest’s latest book is the product of those questions. It is the first-hand account of a scribe, Valentino Santi, who is a seven-year-old boy when ‘love goes out of the world and its oceans begin to dry.’ Valentino Santi’s account, dispensing with political correctness and niceties, leads the reader through this grim night of the world’s soul – from its subtle origins to its terrible reign and climactic showdown with an improbable hero.
The Passion of Valentino Santi, through the lenses of comparative mythology, psychology, classical literature, and the author’s childhood memories and dreams, analyses the world’s current state and arrives at a staggering conclusion; namely, the world we inhabit is a wasteland. It is a garden horribly disfigured by the departure of love and is waiting for someone, anyone to heed the signs, answer the call, and champion love’s return.
The Passion of Valentino Santi is now available at Amazon.com and paperback retailers worldwide.
