The contemporary literary fiction title by author R. Matt Davis follows three men rebuilding their lives after the careers that defined them come to an end.
PETOSKEY, MI / ACCESS Newswire / October 13, 2026 / Matt Davis Books publishes Identity Renewal: The Hourglass Turns, a contemporary literary fiction title by author R. Matt Davis. The novel is available in hardcover, paperback and digital editions through booksellers in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The story takes place at a residential wellness center in the hills of Tennessee. Three men arrive within hours of one another, each at the end of the career that gave his life its shape. One is a former member of the armed forces, one a retired professional athlete and one a corporate executive. The sixty-day program at the center is built around a single question that each of them faces: who is a person once the role that defined him goes away?
Identity Renewal: The Hourglass Turns is organized in three sections titled Descent, Confrontation and Renewal. The narrative moves between the separate history each man carries and the shared present the three of them build together, then follows the year that unfolds after they leave the center. The book runs to twenty-seven chapters with a prologue and an epilogue, and extends to three hundred and forty-eight pages in the hardcover edition.
An hourglass serves as the central image of the novel. It appears as an object on a shelf at the center, as a daily practice, as a gift and finally as a shared marker between the three men. The author uses it to carry the governing idea of the book, which holds that time moves through a life regardless of readiness, and that the available choice concerns what a person does with the time that remains.
Themes in the novel include identity, resilience, friendship, fatherhood and personal renewal. The title is intended for adult readers of character-driven fiction. The narrative is written in the first person and rotates between the three men, with named headings marking each change of narrator.
"The questions behind this novel reach a wide readership," said R. Matt Davis, founder of Matt Davis Books. "A career ends, a role falls away, and a person stands there with the same question regardless of the uniform he wore. That situation arrives for almost everyone eventually, which is the reason the book takes three different men and puts them in the same room."
The hardcover and digital editions carry ISBN 978-9-69-509385-6. The paperback edition carries ISBN 9798240926136. The title is listed with Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million and Kobo in the United States, and with Waterstones and Foyles in the United Kingdom. The digital edition is available to readers internationally.
The novel is published by Matt Davis Books. Title details, author information and reader resources are maintained on the official company website at https://mattdavisbooks.com/.
About the Author
R. Matt Davis is an author and leadership coach based in Petoskey, Michigan. He spent more than thirty-five years in global business leadership across multiple industries and serves as president of Driftwood Leadership, where he works on authentic leadership, resilience and professional development. Identity Renewal: The Hourglass Turns is his first novel.
About Matt Davis Books
Matt Davis Books is an independent publisher based in Petoskey, Michigan, United States. The company publishes the written work of author R. Matt Davis and maintains title information, author details and reader resources on its official website.
Media Contact
Organization: Matt Davis Books
Contact Person Name: Matt Davis
Website: https://mattdavisbooks.com/
Email: info@mattdavisbooks.com
Country: United States
SOURCE: Matt Davis Books
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/education/matt-davis-books-publishes-identity-renewal-the-hourglass-turns-a-novel-on-identity-and-r-1236198
