Tears of Steel

Haunted by the faded ghost of an unforgiving father that he is unable to forget and the tender shadow of a girl’s smile that he can barely remember, he fills his career-driven life with self-indulgent distractions to escape his pain: travel, adventure and, most notably, beautiful women. Yet, he cannot escape her. Each time her spectral image appears he breaks off whatever current relationship he is involved in, mercilessly shredding to pieces the hearts of innumerable women along the way. Many times he comes to the brink of placing her somewhere at the outer limits of his memory, but he never manages to. And the lingering face continues to torment him. That is until he feels the frozen kiss of death approaching in the moments before a nearly fatal crash. Behind a bloodstained dashboard, the shadow of her smile appears once more, and gradually his memory returns home. She was the only woman he ever loved but he lost her in a fatal car accident. She had promised to always be by his side, to return even from death in order to be with him. Will she keep her promise? Is it only a dream? And yet, dreams sometimes come true. A beautiful tale of fathers, friendship, love and loss, romance and hate, professional success and personal disaster, all encompassed by the twilight of a captivating mystery, “Tears of Steel” offers profound insights into our most personal relationships and our deepest emotions. Incredible and fascinating; one man’s quest for happiness, filled with profound discourse revealing timeless truths that too frequently remain hidden to us all. “Tears of Steel” may not change your life, just the way you live it and by so doing you may be able to remember who you were before you were told who you should be.

Jacques’ heart is haunted by the faded ghost of a distant father he has tried to forget, and by the tender shadow of a girl’s smile he cannot remember. To dull his pain, he falls into hedonism: exotic locales, thrilling escapades and above all, beautiful women. Fleeing his wife’s alcoholism, his memories of his first love, and his fear of becoming like his father, Jacques struggles to find an escape. He finds it in the embrace of a string of beautiful women he encounters while traveling on business. Women in hotel piano-bars, at reception desks, and throughout his high-flying life, all strive vainly to mend his broken heart. Each of these short-lived love affairs, passionate and thrilling, is brought to a similar abrupt ending. He spurns these tender efforts, carrying deep in his heart a grim determination to find the woman he has always loved, without knowing who it was that called out to him to wait for her. Many times he reaches the cusp of recollection, never quite able to find her; she remains a faded anemone between the yellowed pages of his memory. Not, that is, until he feels the death’s frosty kiss upon him in the moments before a nearly fatal crash. Behind a bloodstained dashboard of his small plane, the shadow of her smile appears once more, and with it, her memory. The only woman he ever loved may find a way to return from death, just as she promised, in order to bring him back to life. Left to negotiate the messy world of human emotions, he blames his father for never loving him, and the sole reason, as he believes, for the disasters of his emotional world. This struggle to prove himself to an absent, disapproving father would define the life of this incredible man, marking him both for better and for worse. While continuing his studies in Germany, Jacques met the girl whose perfection would haunt him throughout his life. For both of them, this felt like a reunion, as though they were finding each other, and losing each other again and again. Bound together by fate, Jacques and Anna Maria felt an uncanny recognizance on their first meeting at the castle Burg Liebenzell. Kneeling in front of the altar of a chapel, both were sure they had been together before. They promised to search for each other through life and death, should they ever be parted. A terrible accident, resulting to the death of Anna Maria, tore them apart, setting the stage for a reunion some 25 years later, where a magical pendant with the lyre of Orpheus serves its purpose to bring the two lovers together again. The near-death experience revealed to Jacques his true identity, pulling away the obscuring shrouds of mournful memory to show him the woman of his dreams. Upon returning home after recovering from his accident, Jacques is faced with the complete disaster of his marriage. His alcoholic wife is destroying his life, and his children’s life. Wishing the best for his family, Jacques sends his wife to the grace of God. Driven to near poverty after a long legal struggle for the custody of his children, he discovers a still more perfect gem — Anna Maria, miraculously returning in his hour of greatest need to rescue him from desperation. Around her neck is the pendant with the lyre of Orpheus he had given her all those years before... Years after, Jacques and Anna Maria moved to his Greek island. It is here that he discovers a poem, written by his father. It reveals at long last his father’s deep love for him, liberating him from the burden of hatred that has pressed on him all his sinful life. Too late to rekindle a relationship with his deceased father, Jacques moves forward to share his message with the world: a message of hope, and redemption. A poignant, gripping tale of fathers, friendship, loss and love, mystery and adventure, “Tears of Steel” offers profound insights into our most personal relationships. “Tears of Steel” will not change your life but it will show you that pure love is the only path to immortality.

Jacques G. Greco was born on the Greek island of Lesvos, renowned for producing notable authors and Nobel laureates in literature. He has studied Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Sales and Marketing, and Human Relations, and has lived and worked in many different parts of the world. He eventually settled in Canada, where he raised his five children as a single parent. He has held top positions in sectors of Manufacturing and International Marketing and has served as Director of The American Institute of Industrial Engineers (AIIE). After founding his own consulting company, he has trained numerous executives in Communications and Labour Relations, in Canada and abroad. Jacques G. Greco has been publishing his written works since his teenage years in English, German, Danish and Greek.