Is John dead or alive?

Meet twelve-year-old John Greber, who describes the dark clouds of daily life he, his mother, Ellie, and six- year-old sister, Marny, live under. The fear and loathing that exist within a home ruled by the iron fist of an abusive father is established on the very first page. It is impossible not to feel, in the pit of your stomach, the inevitable onslaught of catastrophe. When it happens, the father, who is described as a bitter, ignorant, slouching brute, leaves John and his mother badly injured and steals away with young Marny. Although John awakens in a state of confusion, he resolves to hunt down his father and rescue his baby sister.

With the aid of a myriad of fantastical characters, John travels out of the World and into the Land where he will battle his father (the beast) and rescue Marny, and in the process save the Land from its own demise. John's journey to find his sister and seek ultimate revenge on his abusive father will lead you into a wonderland that happens to also be experiencing the abuses of greed and tyranny, yet on a much grander scale. He and his mother find themselves embroiled in a civil war that threatens both the Land and the World. John's harrowing struggle will embrace the child within you, while touching on many philosophical, spiritual and social issues. Yet, after all of the tragedies and triumphs are said and done, Goneaway, Into the Land, will leave you with a feeling of hope―and a yearning for more.

Gone Away, Into the land is written to adults and young adults. Reviews have come from readers as young as twelve, and adult readers of all ages.

Excerpt from: Gone Away Into The Land

“There was a sound of working machinery, a rhythmic sloshing churning some strange brew the Beast could not ignore. A thick red mist clung to the top of the door header and floated out in stratified layers. The Beast took his eyes off John and bent even lower to see into the doorway. John seized on his chance. He raised his weapon and ran at the Beast. With every muscle in his body he jumped up and hurled his spear into the exact center of the Beast’s eyeball. The monster’s head snapped back in shock. John landed between the Beast’s legs but by the time it grasped what had happened John was clear and back standing by the Mixing Room door. His weapon was gone. There would be no more chances.”

Read what others are saying about this incredible story!

“It's not too often I finish a novel, put it down, and think, “Superb. Now someone has to make this into a movie.” - Scott Douglas / Professor / Rutgers University

“… let me tell you, this book absolutely blew me away! … I can’t wait to read Into the World, and my guess is that we’ll be seeing a film version one day.” - Barbara Smith/Author/Editor

“Think of Tim Burton getting his hands on it and wrapping his mind around the chaos.” - Carrie Feletti/Goodreads.com

“Gone Away into the Land is a captivating book with a creative narrative that quietly lures a reader into an original world that is fully realized and thoroughly absorbing. It transcends into a superb piece of fiction, and I recommend it highly.” - A.F. Stewart/Author of The Undead

“A Groundbreaking Novel.” - Erin O’Riordan/Milwaukee Literary Examiner

“Tremendous, philosophical, wonderful.” - Barbara Bigford/Philadelphia Book Club

“This book was absolutely amazing! Jeffrey Allen has created a world that is both magical and mysterious. The characters have the most extraordinary courage.” - Reviewed by Melissa Cornwall, Goodreads.com

“Imagine a land so beautiful and so perfect each day is better than the one before. Imagine waking up each morning in fear of what the day might bring. How far will a parent and a brother go to protect and find their child or sister? To what lengths will a mother go in order to get her child back?” ― Reviewed by Fran Lewis, Author of, My Name is Bertha, and Bertha Speaks Out!

“Allen stretches the traditional fantasy novel… Moreover, Allen’s writing is extremely powerful particularly his imagery and masterful descriptions such as when John meets up with The Beast.” - Norm Goldman, Bookpleasures.com/300 top Amazon Reviewer

“Very few books stay in my mind after I read them...Gone Away did and still does.” - William R. Potter/Readers Choice Reviews

“Jeffrey B. Allen created a Masterpiece, a captivating story the reader can never forget. The author’s wild imagination draws the reader in, like a magnet. The plot is superb, and his charismatic characters come to life. “GONEAWAY INTO THE LAND” is a riveting tale of not just John’s epic journey, but also our journey through life. The vivid description of “The Beast” is incredible. The remarkable journey is chilling, haunting, and mysterious as it takes the reader to a place with unforgettable consequences. John Greber tugs at the reader’s heart as much as Trevor does in “PAY IT FORWARD.” - Geraldine Ahearn AIOM/Author of 6 books/CCRN/Founding Member ABI Women’s Review Board

My Thoughts:
DEEP! THOUGHT-PROVOKING! ASTONISHING!
Those are just a few of the adjectives I'd begin to use to describe Jeffrey B. Allen's mind-bending journey into the fantasy world of John Greber. But wait a minute. Is it really a fantasy? Parts of this story most definitely are. However, the reality and fantasy are so expertly entwined by the Author that life takes on a whole new realm of realism. - Lynda Coker / Author of Payback Wayback, Return to Wayback, and The Ocean Between

“The tension escalates with each chapter to the point where I actually couldn’t handle it and stopped reading. Compelling, dramatic and palpable. The writing is effective and excellent!” - Poppet/Authonomy.com/Harper Collins

A Compilation of Interview Questions

Could you please tell us a little about your book?

Gone Away into the Land has all of the action and suspense one would expect from a fiction thriller. However, it will lead you down a pathway unexpected as you travel through a unique fantasy-land that may only exist within the mind of the hero.

John doesn't know whether he is dead or alive?

John is a twelve year old boy. He has a six-year-old sister, Marny, and a mother, Ellie. His father is portrayed, from the very first page, as an overgrown, nasty, angry-at-the-world, muscle man who hasn’t a hairless spot on his body. John describes the oppression he, Marny, and his mother live under.

One day the father returns home early from work and explodes into a torrent of anger and violence. After the horrendous scene, you get the distinct impression something strange has happened to John. Although beaten into a state of delirium, John is able to watch, in horror, his monstrous father wield his dreaded power, smash a hardened fist into the side of his mother Ellie’s face before bounding from the house carrying Marny. Afterward, John either falls into unconsciousness, lapses into coma, or bleeds to death.

John is unsure of his state of being, so the reader is left to sort out the confusion with him. Eventually, the reader finds himself in a surrealistic land, a parallel world, where sweet things are invented. John gradually loses his connection with reality. He and his mother are lured by strange characters into the land on the assumption it is where his father fled, carrying his baby sister. John soon resolves to protect his mother, rescue his sister, and kill his father.

Along the route of his journey, there are revelations about his life and the life of his mother that peel away and cause his hatred for his father, now referred to as the Beast, to grow more intense. As John’s disdain grows so does the physical size of the Beast until it comes to resemble a grotesque, slovenly giant, hunched over by the weight of its guilt.

John's epic quest to find the answers as to why his father hated him so, leads to a climactic showdown with the abusive beast. The ultimate battle ensues as John fulfills his vow to forever protect his mother and his sister from the madness that had caused them to live in a constant state of fear.

The twist and turns, and the philosophical and symbolic underpinnings of the novel, culminate in a feel good dénouement with some unexpected surprises.

Did something specific happen to prompt you to write this book?

Not necessarily. Gone Away is based on a children's story I told my children when they were young. I was prodded, for years, by them to write the story as a children's book, but I could never put aside what I remember as my own personal reasons for making the story up in the first place. The skeletal remains of the original story are scattered into the book, but the real meaning behind the Land is deeply personal. There is so much symbolism in Gone Away that I have been tempted to write a dictionary of sorts with the correlative terms and names that refer back to the hero's life under the mark of a father bent on taking his selfish rage out on his family.

Furthermore, I have developed my niche by writing socially relevant fantasy. That means I will never fly my message in the face of my reader, but there will be a message. It is just that it will be subliminally buried within the pages and between the lines. The story will carry itself on the action, suspense, and strength of the characters, as all good stories should.

Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?

I have no single individual who inspired me to write this particular story. As all writers do or should do I drew from personal experiences, and as I embellished those experiences I exposed my demons and forced them onto the pages to give my villains ferocity. Likewise, I exposed my sensitivity, love, sorrow, self pity, and compassion to glean the strengths and weaknesses out of my hero and supporting cast.

What is Gone Away, Into the Land?

• Do you believe crimes, particularly those committed against children, sets in motion a negative energy that will forever damage the victim? And, are there ways in this life, or the next, to neutralize the power of that evil so it cannot return to do harm to others, or worse, remain to continue its decaying process and its relentless quest to debilitate and repeat?
• The belief that the power of good will overcome the power of evil is, most certainly, a basic premise of Gone Away, Into the Land. But there is much more embedded into the reality of the story as it is twisted and intertwined with the fantasy.
• The following are questions that have come to me from readers since the novel was first published.

I have been reluctant to reveal my interpretation of the underlying philosophy that is the heart and soul of Gone Away, Into the Land. I have allowed readers to gain what they want from it. Yet, so many questions have come from readers, intriguing me to such a degree that I felt I should address them.

The question: Does Gone Away, Into the Land explore the paranormal?

The perceived, and perhaps the accepted definition of paranormal may preclude Gone Away, but the broader meaning may in some-ways embrace it. Gone Away, Into the Land deals with more than just the space that exists between life and death. In that vein, however, it implies, in most cases, that there is no such thing as death. The main character, John, slips into a strange space without knowledge of having done so. It is a place without boundaries, and without time or universal cycles. The energy John carries with him seeks to cleanse itself of that which went wrong during his short life. Much went wrong for John, and for his family. He spends the entire novel searching for answers, while, underneath it all, the dark forces of evil continue their tireless work of poisoning his world. The story is John’s journey into the Land, and, although he is a twelve year old boy, throughout the story, John steadily grows in strength and character as he gains knowledge and awareness of the events that caused his family its horrible worldly existence. But the question remains: is John alive or dead, or gone away?

Is Gone Away, Into the Land about the afterlife?

Many readers have drawn differing conclusions in regard to the philosophy underlying Gone Away. Nevertheless, they all seem to recognize that Gone Away, Into the Land is a unique novel that explores the infinite second, the never-ending journey toward self-realization and the restlessness of the soul as it goes about achieving reconciliation. This provocative tale is told from the viewpoint of a teenage boy. Gone Away, Into the Land is a story of self as it is motivated to derive meaning from the physical life in order to possess peace in the outer world, referred to as The Land.

Is there a core philosophy you used in deriving the concept for the story?

The novel, taken in its whole, has at its center the eastern philosophy of Vedanta, whereby the goal of human life is ultimately to transcend self identity and become one with all things, beyond qualities or attributes; beyond subject and object; the source of all being, intelligence, and bliss. The belief is, therefore, that there is a no division between the universe in its real-time mental, physical, and spiritual appearance and the creator and creation; the doer and deed; the cause and effect; the underlying truth amidst the universe of unreality; TheOne and TheOther; self-existence; all-there-is; all-that-has-ever-been; all-that-ever-can-be; one-and-only; alone with nothing within itself and nothing outside itself.

Vedanta explains what all human beings, through every conceivable belief system, religious, non-religious, organized or unorganized, are ultimately striving for. Since we are capable of projecting the outcome of our mortality and, for better or for worse, also possess the ability to reason, then most of us, within the privacy of our own thoughts, while fearful of that fateful day of our death, work tirelessly to attain an inner sense that we are divine; unique in every aspect. Therefore, we will hold tight to a belief, for our own good and until the end of our mortal existence that all of humanity is just as divine.

Who is the Purveyor? Is he God?

When you read Into the Land, you will be taken on a journey where you will accompany a boy, John, who has been severely mistreated in his Worldly life. Ultimately, your emotions are tangled with his as you travel a path that is unique to him. It is a path that eventually leads to his understanding of what is good, known in western religion as the Precepts: that which is shared by all things good, and the common values to practice the Precepts, and to protect them from those who will undoubtedly follow the destructive path to oppose them and seek to control them . . . or destroy them. Thus, Gone Away, Into the Land, the first novel of the trilogy, symbolically uses sweet things and a wonderful land devoted to their creation as the best of all realms to represent and ultimately be the home of the mysterious Purveyor, the protector of all goodness. When the Purveyor shows up at John’s birth he confounds a plot to kill the twins and possibly the mother. It is he who knows John’s destiny and it is he who spirits Sara away and later conspires with Driver to bring John into the Land. Although the Purveyor says nothing throughout the entire book, he speaks with the loudest of all voices.

Gone Away, Into the Land upholds my conviction that the energy that surrounds our past, present and future is the same. The energy that comes to us as an inspiration, an epiphany, a revelation or a vision, is by ordinance and might reveal itself to us at anytime, or it may never reveal itself at all. Our individual predilection to look outward for our answers along with our preconceived notions and vast misconceptions will dictate our propensity to either wall-off the energy or, if we are inclined, to let it nurture us, carry us along life’s path toward the ultimate realization that we are all, every one of us, divinely inseparable. Yes, one with each other, one with the World, and one with the Land.