'Between Heaven and Earth' begins with an extraordinary sequence of events that brings the young Santello into contact with the ancient tradition of the Sufis. Visiting the city of Konya in the heart of Anatolia, tomb of the great Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi, he meets an enigmatic figure who appears to be waiting for him. "Between Heaven and Earth there are possibilities. There is assistance, and there is opportunity... possibilities... look for them with a sincere heart, and you will find them", he is told. Little does he suspect that the possibilities that will open up for him, the opportunity presented by a contemporary teaching master, will be in the midst of his home town of San Benedetto del Tronto on the Adriatic coast of Italy.

But 'Between Heaven and Earth' isn't just Marco's story. It is also the story of his sister Mariella who, caught in the terrifying King's Cross fire and suffering 42% burns, is given 'assistance' to survive and overcome her ordeal. Like Marco, Mariella comes to find in Alfredo's teaching a deep resonance and purpose that transforms her life.

Alfredo tells Santello that "Each type of book feeds and develops different organs of perception, but true books should be 'eaten', not understood". This is indeed a book to be 'eaten', full of nutrition for those of us who have searched for years for a true, comprehensive and balanced path of development. And it's a 'meal' richly infused with the flavour of Alfredo's teaching: robust, subtle and deeply insightful but never mushy or dogmatic. This flavour will taste strikingly familiar to anyone who knows, for instance, Rafael Lefort's 'The Teachers of Gurdjieff' or Idries Shah's 'The Sufis'.