The Promise of Unbroken Straw

Paul’s teachers say he’s distracted, and they’re not wrong. With the demands of a struggling farm, Allied boots in Europe, and secrets surrounding his mother’s death, who can blame him? And the expectations of his unapproachable father are seemingly out of reach. When a financial windfall sparks a rags-to-riches transformation, it also sets in motion events that will test young Paul to his core. This coming-of-age story connects Paul’s tumultuous adolescence to his unfulfilled adulthood. Across those decades, he searches for redemption and reconciliation with the ghosts of his past.

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ken Steele holds degrees in Civil Engineering from Oklahoma State University and MIT. The Promise of Unbroken Straw is Ken’s debut novel, a work of historical fiction. He resides in Colorado with his wife of 41 years where his days are filled with skiing, pickleball, golf, hiking, and all that the mountains can offer. 

“The Promise of Unbroken Straw will lure readers into an epic and unforgettable tale of three generations of a family saturated with secrets, grief, and unrealized, stubborn love. Ken Steele takes us on a sweeping journey from rags-to-riches-to-rags-to..., from rural to urban, from heartbreak to healing, from lost to found. It’s a story as deep and complicated and revealing and wonderful as life itself.”

—Mark McKinnon

Chief Media Advisor to five Presidential campaigns

Regular columnist for Vanity Fair, The London Daily Telegraph, and Daily Beast