PRESS RELEASE:

 

The story that saved a life

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One story. Two endings. Which ending is yours?

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Does the world need another sad story? Not very likely. But does the world need to hear a sad story which saved someone's life?

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For the Croatian author who publishes under the pen name Bernard Jan, writing A World Without Color was not an option. It was a question of survival, he says.

 

In this heartfelt and moving novella, Bernard Jan documents the last three days he spent with his cat Marcel. "Marcel was not only my cat, he was my everything. My brother, my friend, my world shrank in a soft gray-striped furry ball."

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My love, if you go away in a few days, the world will lose its colors and darken like the land of Mordor. If you go away and leave me to wander aimlessly, alone in this sea become wild, like a ship with a broken rudder and drowned sailors, and if I don't find comfort in the warmth of your body, clutched in my embrace at the end of the day, I'm afraid I won't survive.

 

A World Without Color, a true story, rises some important questions: What do you say to someone who is dying? And what do you say when that someone can't understand a word you are saying? How do you comfort each other throughout... and beyond?

 

The answers are not always easy to reach. Yet here the authors offers the reader the genuine and uncensored version of the events that brought him to the point of dark and suicidal thoughts, and a second, fictional version of the events that could have happened if he had taken that one last step. It is up to each individual reader to decide which ending to embrace.

 

Official review:

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"This short book is the deeply-felt and well-written account of the love and interdependence between a man and his companion animal. All those who have had a pet, and there are many of us, know that the time comes when the last kindness we can give them is to ease their journey out of the world. Here, we see the heart-breaking decision and the lonely aftermath sensitively portrayed. Many will recognise these feelings."

- Kath Middleton, author and e-book reviewer

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A World Without Color is available as e-book and paperback on Amazon.

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The book is translated into English by Bernard Jan

Editing and proofreading by Philip Newey, Thomas Carley Jr. and Kath Middleton

Cover design by Mario Kožar MKM Media

Cover photo by Zach Singh

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More information about A World Without Color on Bernard Jan's blog Muse.

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