Mitchell Allen

Count It All Joy Mitchell Allen

Is life worth living? This is the question a small-town boy suffering from post-traumatic stress seeks to answer as he matures. Scarred by the people around him and forced into hopeless situations, he withdraws into his mind and finds peace only in the privacy of nature while the chaos of modern society threatens to overwhelm him. Panic and depression prevent him from developing his talents and foreshadow future sorrow.

As the fearful boy grows into a solitary man, childhood ghosts linger, and nihilism sets in. Caustic disdain for society dominates his mind. Stuck in a dead-end job and lacking connectedness to the world, he whittles his life down to nothing and ultimately destroys the last vestiges of his spirit. Dependent on alcohol and devoid of identity, love, or purpose, he leaves his dark but familiar world behind and embarks on a journey through the mountains and deserts of the western United States to find either redemption...or death.

In a bleak world where God is distant, and people are broken, is redemption possible? Count It All Joy grapples with this question in a new and unique way.