Elijah's Coin

Elijah's Coin A Lesson for Life

Steve O'Brien2009
Elijah's Coin is the story of Tom, a young man who has suffered a tragic loss and is spiraling out of control. He's angry, antisocial, and rapidly descending into a life of crime. Then, during a night of folly, as he brazenly commits burglary, Tom encounters the night watchman Elijah King, a mysterious figure with a shrouded past. Elijah, unexpectedly, doesn't turn Tom in but instead becomes a stern and rather cryptic mentor to him. Rather than laying his lessons out in a straightforward manner, Elijah gives Tom an enigmatic coin and sends him on a mission of self-discovery. Each step of the journey enriches Tom's sense of the world and of the contributions an individual can make to it, so that through searching for others he ironically comes to know himself. Each meeting also provides a piece of the puzzle that is Elijah and his give to get philosophy. A serious conflict between his new values and a thirst for vengeance arises, however, when Tom finds himself face-to-face with the darkest figure from his own past....
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