About the Author

Mike Maranhas is the older of two sons born to a Norwegian-American homemaker and Norwegian immigrant fisherman in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Before he turned nine he had moved several times (including once to Norway), lost his father to marital separation, and acquired both a new brother and a new surname. A high school football injury ended dreams of a sports scholarship and also sent him down a more solitary and introspective path.

Upon graduation (cum laude, with a BS/BA in Accounting and Information Systems, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst) and a summer-long camping spree across the continental US, Mike accepted a Mutual Fund Accounting position in Boston?s Financial Services Industry. He later segued onto the technological side of the business, spending most of his career as a self-employed Financial Systems Consultant. Along the way, he married, settled down, but never stopped searching; and, it is through searching that Mike began to write.

About the Book

Luke and Meesha Ferless, college sweethearts now professionals in their thirties, are hiking in a rain forest far from civilization. Their vacation to the idyllic island, Re'enev, is a major step toward rejuvenating what was once a beautiful marriage--a marriage whose decline, due to Luke's betrayal, prompted Meesha to attempt suicide. While hiking, they unknowingly venture into forbidden territory. When they separate briefly in the dense flora, Meesha vanishes.

Tragedy has separated Luke and Meesha once, emotionally; they were beginning to heal. Now it has struck again, this time physically. Luke has to find her; but the elements are against him while his mind, his only ally, can also be an enemy.

Mainstream fiction spiced with mystery, romance and suspence, Re'enev captures both the beauty and fragility of marital love and human life. The story is unique in the way it conjoins an urbane couple with primitive danger, blissful sensuality with unbridled brutality, and a cerebral protagonist with a world that seems to lack reason; then, the conclusion brings unexpected redemption, but with a stunning twist and a lethal caveat. Re'enev is that rare novel that appeals across genders and genres with its intense plot, poetic prose, sharp dialogue, and candid depiction of the human psyche through relationships, crises, perceptions, and emotions--most notably, love and fear.