The Subway Flutist

Who is this imposing figure, clearly of Native American heritage? And how did he acquire such a valuable instrument, a Grenadilla Blackwood flute of a very special design? He calls himself Jonathan Bearclaw, and he guards his precious flute as he fears a rightful owner might come forward to claim it and deprive him of his only source of income. From the unfortunate origin as an orphaned half breed in a Cheyenne Indian Reservation, he tracks down his elusive father, Bernard, who had abandoned his mother before his birth. Jonathan finds a way to forgive the man who lives like a pauper in a dingy basement room. Upon Bernard's death Jonathan inherits a large sum of money his father had hidden away to live like his homeless friends who sleep on subway trains and eat at charity soup kitchens. Jonathan, nearly illiterate, overcomes his reluctance to study music and discovers his extraordinary talent. He rises to fame and riches, and finds love with the woman of an equally uncommon background. Set in the 1980s, the plot and the several interacting side plots take the reader through familiar and unfamiliar scenes in the city that doesn't sleep.