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 The Lighthouse Keeper
"An unforgettable story about family, loss, and eternal love... Ten year-old Peter O'Banyon's life changes forever when his family dies in an
accident. Orphaned, he goes to live with his garrulous Uncle Billie, the keeper of the Port Hope Island Lighthouse in Massachusetts. There, as the beacon leads sailors safely home, Peter learns an astonishing truth about Billie's past--and the power of love.
This message will guide Peter's life, even when World War Two's brutality
rocks his faith, even when he returns to his young bride and an unimaginable tragedy. Now, in the final days of his own life, Peter needs to pass on the lighthouse keeper's secrets to his own daughter, but to do it may take nothing less than a miracle...”
“ Pratt shows that the human spirit is like a lighthouse, capable of shining through the most devastating storms.” -- Publisher's Weekly.
The true war history of my father and his war unit, The First Armored Division, is told through the eyes of Peter O’Banyon. I chose to both honor my father and the courage of simple draftees as I recalled the war stories told to me by him. The anecdotal incidents about my father and his friends, General Patton’s arrival to the battle scene after the discouraging route of The First Armored Division at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, diary accounts from my father’s hand, and the official Battle History of The First Armored Division where used to create the World War II scenes.
My Dad was tremendously hurt and touched by what happened to a particular friend on a street in Naples during an artillery barrage as recounted in the fictional story. His recall of the horror of the three month siege by the Germans on Anzio, Italy, the constant fear, the two and one half year ordeal he went through, all offered me emotional and first hand material to bring the dilemma of Peter O’Banyon to life.
What happened to create in Peter O’Banyon a gentler man, even though he endured the killing, also happened to my father as many witnesses who knew him can attest. My father was transferred early from actual Sherman tank radioman to the Supply Company, and he drove a "deuce-and-a half" as they were called, fitted with a 20- millimeter cannon. He participated in all the actual battles, and was from Ireland through Italy in all the towns and places as described.
Life and Death-- On pages 41 and 42 there is a life and death struggle with the Irish patriarch Robert O’Banyon near death and the would be rescuer son William (Uncle Billie) who had always wanted to rescue his father from financial burden and bondage. There are real life quotes and scenes from the last days I had with my beloved father. The dream of his son, Billie's question, and Robert’s answer: "ALWAYS, ALWAYS" reveal a true non-fiction family story and incident between my father and I in his last days of life.
Joey... was a composite character although the real “Joey” from New Jersey and in my father’s unit was some one who earned thousands in poker and craps. His dear friend, closest pal had another name and was the one killed in the artillery barrage on the Naples Italy Harbor by German guns in the hills.
Ernie Pyle – I sought to recreate the feelings of newsreels, the sanitized version of war as presented to the American public. To do so would be more genuine in the taking the reader back to those times of American values, bravado, heroism, and idyllic portrayal of war heroics. No war correspondent was more suited, more beloved by soldier and American citizen alike than was Ernie Pyle. My father reports to have met him. He was a true friend of the average GI.
One day, in contemplating how to fit Pyle in the story and allow “his voice” to do some of the creation I wanted for dramatizing North African war time events, I wandered in to a small Provo, Utah used book store and found immediately the out of print copy of that episode of American combat (written and published as it was still taking place). Titled Here is Your War, I found myself purchasing the out-of-print book for $25.00 and thrilling at the correspondent’s portrayal that is now included in the THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER. Serendipitous or coincidence? This is the type of event that keeps the fiction writer (who believes they have an unseen muse looking over their shoulder to help them develop the story) excited and thrilled knowing they are on the right track.
Facts about The Lighthouse Keeper
- Released as a hardcover in February 2000. Two hardcover printings. Twenty city national book tour.
- National Bestseller (USA TODAY and regional lists) exceeding sales of the hardcover edition of The Last Valentine.
- Audio rights purchased by Brilliance Audio and produced in both abridged and unabridged versions.
- Foreign rights sales.
- The Literary Guild and DoubleDay Book Clubs purchased Book Club rights and sales exceeded those of The Last Valentine. Offered as a Main Selection.
- Released in February 2001 as a Mass Market paperback with copies of 500,000 distribution nationwide.
- Foreign rights sales in progress: Korea, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Canada, Mexico and pending.
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