The End Is Near

The end is always near,
but it's never too late to live.

The End Is Near is a tale of childhood trauma, vengeance, and angelic interventions that charts one man's unusual journey toward forgiveness, self-acceptance, and enlightenment.

On his forty-fifth birthday, as his hostages slept and state police prepared to take him by force, Nathan Huffnagle placed the cold circle of a shotgun barrel beneath his chin and gripped the trigger.  The end was near. Or so he believed.

His last act--a proper revenge upon his childhood nemesis, Randy Trent--had deteriorated into a farcical hostage standoff beset by a media circus, a combustible romantic rivalry among his captives, and the undeniable reality that Randy Trent, a vicious thug and bully twenty-five years before, had grown up to become a man too humble, too good, too exasperatingly decent to kill.


Nathan pulled the trigger. And his life began again.


Weeks later, Nathan wakes in a hospital bed to a new assignment, delivered to him by a series of seemingly angelic visitors. Nathan must write a new suicide journal on the backs of the pages of a court transcript of his previous suicide journal. And this time, he must tell the truth, the painful and possibly liberating truths he was forced to confront about himself during the hostage situation.

Is Nathan up to the task?  Or is he losing what's left of his mind?  Will his search for the truth grant him the death he seeks?  Or a new lease on life? The End Is Near consists of both of Nathan's journals, presented in alternating entries, each journal commenting wryly on the other, each generating its own suspense, and each leading to a surprising conclusion. Infused with humor and sadness, restless longing and regret, flights of fantasy and the sheer damnable contrariness of real life, The End Is Near is a tale of redemption like none you've read before.

Harry Ramble is the author of the novel Sex Offender Lives Here, also from Ebb Press. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children. You can find more of his writings and ramblings at harryramble.com and twitter.com/HarryRamble.