Recovering Maurice, by Martin Zelder

Recovering Maurice follows rumpled sixtyish professor Maurice, who believes he has a good life—wife, home, job—until a chance encounter with a mysterious woman reading a book about trauma. From that moment, Maurice begins to examine the trauma that has shaped his life—his brother Emil’s devastating childhood neurological damage, his own developmental struggles, his professional and personal failings, and even his lifelong frustration with people’s persistent mispronunciation of his surname, Obster (with a long o).

As Maurice delves deeper, new ventures—like a book club at a dive bar—end in disaster, and the perils of betrayal, mortality, and despair grow ever closer. When Emil’s death leaves Maurice reeling, he is left to confront not only these new traumas but the foundation for his own recovery. In a quest that includes love, faith, nature, and community, Maurice embarks on a vulnerable journey of self-discovery.

Recovering Maurice is a moving and precarious tale about disabilities—both visible and invisible—humor amidst frailty, and a person’s often fitful search for healing in a world full of challenges.