Robert Morrison

The Birth of Jack Wirdth: a Novel Robert Morrison

A dark cloud of sin hangs over the puritanical village of Omer, a town lost to history and bound there by the stifling doctrine of its evil pastor, Icabod Kroll. Under the pretense of a curse, and encouraged by Kroll, the pilgrims of the town shun Eva Wirdth during her pregnancy. In the throes of painful labor, Icabod betrays Eva and delivers her child into the hands of the megalomaniac, genetic physicist Dr. Friedrich Von Skrimmel. The zealous Doctor's interests lay in the child alone and Eva is left to die following a botched cesarean section at the hands of the ruthless and controversial Dr. Inga Stitch. Born with a head of tremendous size, the infant (Jack Wirdth) is prized as a biological anomaly and hailed as the missing puzzle piece in Dr. Von Skrimmel's ridiculous theory of human genetic manipulation for the U. S. military. Ultimately doomed by budget cuts, the research facility closes and Jack Wirdth and the Doctor find themselves on their own, lost in a world of ambivalence and uncertainty. Through many twists and turns, Jack finds himself stumbling headlong into a collision with his mysterious past and the tumultuous delivering of retribution upon the town that shunned and betrayed his mother on the night of his birth.