A Rose for Magdalena

In A Rose for Magdalena Cole Richter, a scientist, has a Near-Death Experience that changes his life. A catastrophic accident thrusts him into a world that blurs boundaries between life and death. In his NDE a mysterious figure asks him to find a letter while Richter doesn't want to return to life. But he must go back and accepts the request to find a letter written by his ancestor, a Civil War soldier to his wife. With that acceptance his spiritual journey begins. Left with an isolating sensitivity to another dimension he has insights and abilities that upset his prior understanding of reality. These revelations come at a cost. He grapples with them and begins a search he cannot explain to others. In the search he comes to understand the lives of others, kin he has never known and lost to memory.  As his experience becomes publicly known he is beset by skeptical challenges to both his position and his marriage. His is a lonely and troubled quest for validation. He is burdened with a knowledge challenged by disbelief of those around him. A Rose for Magdalena explores themes of isolation as Richter's abilities alienate him from the ordinary world. It is about the quest for understanding apart from a world that offers complacent explanations.