Synopsis
Isaac Cooper, a cantankerous character with a dry wit and reluctant to join the modern world around him, is a Gulf Coast Fisherman born and raised on Galveston Island. For twenty six years, he has run a marginally successful fishing business and serving as a 49% owner. That is until, the majority owner and widow of his former boss; Thelma Dotson offers to sell him the remaining 51% before she moves to California. The catch, he only has four months to come up with $300,000, almost ten times what he cleared in the previous year after taxes. After twenty-six years, his goal is finally in reach and he has no idea how to achieve it. Isaac has never been someone to live up to expectations. As a former high school football star gone bust, the son of an alcoholic who died in an oil rig fire when Isaac was a boy, whose failed marriage led to a daughter he never sees and is haunted by the death of his strong-willed, devoutly Catholic mother, he has purposely kept to himself in his ramshackle house on the beach with the mangy mutt he rescued after Hurricane Ike. All of that changes when Isaac sees the possibility of being his own man. After a rare successful catch at the end of shrimp season, Isaac celebrates with his men, only to stumble upon an intense car wreck during an early winter storm, leaving the driver in a coma and a young mother Natalie and her infant daughter Kyleigh stranded, not knowing a soul. Isaac finds himself drawn to Natalie, puts her up in the grand Victorian house in town that has belonged to his family since shortly after the 1900 Hurricane. In the meantime, Isaac’s out-of-control fifteen-year old daughter Elena runs away from home to come live with him. Having never been part of her life since Elena was a little girl, he now finds himself forced not only to be a provider, but a father of a teenager whose difficult nature and failure to reach her potential is similar to his own. All of these complications, plus the appearance of a first-mate, young, optimistic, ambitious Mexican immigrant named Manny, an overly eager young priest Father Martin, the encroachments of twenty-first century life on an island proud of its former glory and worried about its uncertain future, and a younger, more successful brother’s suspicious motives and generosity will lead Isaac Cooper to discover who he really is and to realize that he is truly A Piece of the Continent.
About the Author
David Wampach lives and teaches in Fort Worth, Texas with his wife and son. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa and DePaul University. Originally from Chicago, he followed a Fort Worth girl to Texas and is continually inspired by the spirit of those who call the Gulf Coast home.
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