Under the Table Books — Todd Walton

Set in an anarchist bookstore somewhere in northern California and dedicated to bookstore people and librarians everywhere, these interwoven tales illuminate life in a collective of artists and renegades, a de facto family of social outcasts for whom the bookstore is home, community center, and grand experiment in pragmatic mysticism. The rich cast of characters includes visionary poets, painters, and musicians, a ten-year-old genius, a homeless savant who claims to have once been the world s richest man, a master chef, a former movie star turned recluse, and a pair of eighty-eight-year-old identical twin sisters.
As these intriguing and funny individuals go through their changes large and small, the collective evolves with them, for the bookstore is as much a character as the people who live and work and love therein. And as their personal and communal struggles mirror the challenges facing the world at large, these lovable people are drawn into dramas that transcend their own. In the end, all of these very real characters have grown into a deeper awareness of why they re alive and what they must do to keep the magic in their lives.