the book that inspired the feature film


raising father by frank j. rich

Born into the poverty of those with only eyes to see, Max Saarndt finds himself the victim of a second wounding by a similar hand. Bereaved of his soul mate and anchor, his wife Evelyn, Max takes a journey into uncharted waters that would for most be the pattern of normalcy, but for him, is a distant and uncertain place. Forced to confront the loss of his children, Max must find his kindred partner, anew, in a mind only capable of a single focus, for the courage and heart to win the day.

“captures the unadulterated power and grace of the human spirit, embodied in the love of two daughters for their father.”

— Ted Coburn, CEO, Coburn Capital

“A poignantly thoughtful, and thought-provoking meditation on the familial ties that bind us in ways emotional, intellectual and spiritual. as the father of a late son whose distinctly curious appearance belied extraordinary sensibilities and skills, i instantly connected with frank j. rich’s richly limned title character of max, an artist and father whose love—of life, of wife, and of his greatest creations, two daughters-ultimately conquers all.”

— Bruce Apar, Editor-In-Chief & Publisher, North County News & Information Services

“Raising father will raise awareness of great abilities, even where little have been recognized or expected. other people will not look the same.”

- Paul de Vries, PhD, New York Divinity School



About

Frank J Rich

Frank J. Rich is a businessman, founder, and principle and partner in organizational development, market relations, and multimedia companies. He has published more than 800 articles on performance improvement, and has also written more than 200 poems, literary letters, short stories, a political irony cartoon strip, children’s books, a compendium of the newspaper and magazine columns,  and is working on four  more novels, including an autobiographical fiction novel.

The idea for this book (Raising Father) came to him in a moment of reflection on the nature of the human condition under stress.  Given to thought on the fundamentals of human behavior, and its elemental hopefulness, he imagined the course of a family in the wake of tragedy. The writing is thoughtful and intuitive, and reveals the ethic behind decisions and the heart behind the ethic.  The telling of this story, as is common to most storytellers, is the accumulated expression of so many of the pennies held closely in his own thought bank. Perhaps, he also imagined that little more was necessary to complete it than to put it to paper. And so the story was written.