Howell

"Howell finally opened his eyes and tried to scream but nothing happened. It was only a game he sometimes played, trying to make a sound, trying to make himself heard, prove to himself and anyone who would listen that he was still alive. But the world wasn't listening, no one was, they had other things on their mind, other things to do as they went about their daily business, ignoring Howell, not knowing that he existed..."

A novel by David L. Malkin

The beginning - Monday Glasgow

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Information about the novel follows below

CHARACTERS

HOWELL 35 , older, weaker, unemployed, from a state school and a council scheme in Edinburgh, now living in Glasgow, at odds with life and people, a thinker not a doer.

ALEX 25 , younger, beautiful, stronger, educated, psychology graduate, ran away from the private schools and middle class homes of her Glasgow childhood, reinventing herself, now living in Edinburgh, at odds with life and people, a thinker and a doer

HEANEY 30 , psychopath, younger, older, stronger, uneducated, liar, small time villain, conman, blackmailer, drugs dealer, a doer not a thinker.

SETTING & PERIOD Two weeks in Contemporary Glasgow, the West End/Bedsit Land and Edinburgh's South West, the council schemes and private housing estate of the mid to late 1990's

This book works on 4 levels:Howell or howl, verb to yell or cry, as a wolf or dog: to utter a long, loud, whining sound: to wail: to roar.

Do we really know ourselves or others? Do words, thoughts, actions and deeds tell the real story? How do we make ourselves understood? By our silences and our screams?

Do we really know ourselves or others? What is it like to be a man? What is it like to be a woman? Is Alex more like a man and Howell more like a woman? Are the roles reversed? Are we playing at genders?

What is it like to live in the contemporary Glasgow and Edinburgh of the 1990's? What are the sights, sounds tastes, smells and touches of ordinary life? What is it like to be human in such places? A good story (thriller come love story) that builds to a climax has a beginning, a middle and an end, with twists and turns along the way.

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