Alastair Sharp

Crooked Wings: a Novel Alastair Sharp

The spiritual search is an unfolding mystery that takes as many forms as there are seekers on the path. Whatever it is that compels a person to search for that mysterious and gripping missing link in our being, has a narrative of its own, no two are ever the same.

A barefoot holy man blesses a Moroccan child in the marketplace in Casablanca, « Find the bird with crooked wings », he tells her. Unwavering in her determination, Shaafia becomes a translator, but not merely of words.

A drop-out frenchman is carried off from a beach in Goa. In a Hindu ashram Théophile is commanded to study an ancient Indian scripture and then is abruptly sent home to serve the reincarnation of the crippled saint who wrote it.

An Australian nurse searches for her lost aboriginal heritage in the desert, where, after her initiation, the elders tell her of the birth of her spirit child. When Kate finds it, the child is unlike any she has ever seen.

Like spokes on a wheel, drawn in towards the hub, seemingly unrelated incidents launch unexpected journeys, where disparate characters confront their obstacles and their preconceptions, finally to arrive at a mutual rendezvous in a crumbling french château. When each of them recognises that they have discovered the goal of their search, they find each other.

The goal of their search however is not what they had expected.

Trapped in a physically disabled body lives a child with the power to open others to their own potential. Pia is eight years old. She has cerebral palsy but she also has the subtle and powerful wisdom of an ancient soul.

Crooked Wings is a story of interwoven journeys, of revelation and restoration, where every pilgrim, driven by their thirst to know, pursues a unique path and must learn to read the sign posts of their progress in their own personal language. The ultimate message is about Love, is about finding the heart, is about trusting that, within each of them, their questioning can be answered.