In Baltimore's Inner Harbor, a brutal murder sparks a summer of hammer-wielding violence while far away lies Tolberima, a realm of eternal winter where snow-capped mountains encircle a harbor, a vast wall guards dark secrets, and the looming Mons Baltimorous watches all. Traversing these two worlds is Sloan Slagg, a failed psychotherapist haunted by her father's death and her own fatal mistake.

On December 32nd, Sloan sits before an oncoming Amtrak seeking annihilation but discovers something far darker instead. When she regains consciousness, she finds herself on a different train, leaving Baltimore for the mysterious realm of Tolberima. There, an aged tyrant with mystical abilities awaits her arrival. This calf-skinned octogenarian claims an unthinkable connection to Sloan and offers her “compensation beyond her imagination” in exchange for something “small”—a possession so precious she doesn't even know she has it … and so terrible she couldn’t possibly want to keep it.

Part speculative fiction, part psychological thriller, and part dark fantasy, Forever Urtth is a genre-defying novel that explores the price of love and the terrifying power of the thoughts we keep locked away. As Sloan faces an impossible choice, she must decide: what part of herself is she willing to surrender to find—or change—the truth?

Brian Wolak

  • Colorado transplant, Baltimore native

  • Husband of a therapist

  • Son of a firefighter

  • Father of an entrepreneur

  • New(ish) grandad of a star-faced little moonbeam

  • Servant of two of Colorado’s neediest cats

  • Writer