First Novel - In the Shadows of the Oaks An Urban Tale

Desperately seeking a job, Sean Allen accepts the only one that is offered to him - a sixth grade teaching position in an inner city school. Annoyed, frustrated and angry he reluctantly moves to North Haven to start the darkest period of his life. Surprisingly he quickly befriends two teachers - one black, one white - and is allowed to participate in the Saturday basketball tournaments with the boyz. The black teacher, recognizing that Sean has stepped outside his isolated world, suggests that he pursue a new program to tutor students in their homes. Encouraged by the auspicious turn his life has taken, Sean fulfills a latent ambition of joining an EMT squad and soon finds himself running with them on Tuesday nights. His initial desperation is steadily replaced with fulfillment and contentment.

His cozy life changes, however, when he meets Landi, the young mother of one of the students he tutors. The more she spurns him the more infatuated he becomes with her and the more he is torn between her and Brenda, a fellow teacher with whom he dates regularly but infrequently. Their lives become intimately entangled in the environment and situations that surround them – romance, love, hostility, betrayals and pervasive street gangs – as he continues his search for the meaning and purpose of his life.

While his relationships with Landi and Brenda evolve, the community is embroiled in a nasty mayoral election, the murder of an innocent youth, an outcry regarding his relationships with Brenda and Landi, and a major battle between warring street gangs, ultimately culminating in an explosive ending.

This is a novel of epic proportions. Although fictitious, many parts of it are played out every day in school districts throughout the country and it is the author's intent to show that despite all the outward differences between races, there are more similarities than what first meets the eye.

The book is on Kindle. Since I just joined the forum please find it by using my last name (Settineri) or by using ISBN 978-1-4675-0328-0

Thank you