Markus Greene is a shy, borderline loser through much of his childhood in the suburbs of Detroit, enveloped in his mother's intensely focused love, until finally blossoming in the second half of high school. Markus leaves home to become a wandering poet, surviving for three years selling original poetry written on napkins, trying to give his substantial reserves of love away to the world. By the time he becomes Dr. Greene, a heart transplant surgeon, Markus has convinced himself that he's given all his love away. So he makes one extreme, desperate attempt to get it all back.
Can love be like a commodity, traded back and forth, possessed in varying amounts? And does the heart, that famous muscle, have anything to do with this most complicated emotion? Markus goes to great lengths seeking answers to these questions, a journey that begins on a backyard boulder in a scrap of surburban forest and ends on a river.
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Praise for The Farmer
"I've very much enjoyed The Farmer--Olchowski has a great instinct for plot."
-- Tim Wallack, product designer
" I could not put this book down. The storyline, the characters... It is wonderful. I felt immersed in the characters and loved their depictions. Olchowski's writing is evocative and terrific. The plot is great--a real page-turner."
-- Susan Fisher, Ph.D., clinical psychologist
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I. Alexander Olchowski graduated with honors from Marlboro College. He lives in a farmhouse in upstate New York. The Commodity of Love is his fifth novel.
