Tim Schell

"...a compelling, contemporary tale evoking Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness,' Schell's fascinating work focuses on two Peace Corps Volunteers who brave rivers teeming with crocodiles, murderous poachers, wicked sorcerers, and the always present poverty and disease...this fascinating work reflects on a tangled nation's sorrow, the mystery of the human heart. It is a wonderful book!"

--Craig Lesley, author of Winterkill

Jake and Etsuko Weedsong live a bucolic life on their vineyard in rural Oregon where Jakes spends his days working on a memoir recounting much of his years living in Japan where he married Etsuko twenty years earlier. As the novel opens, Jake and Etsuko are attacked by a group of racist skinheads. At their sentencing hearing, Etsuko asks the judge that they be sentenced to having a traditional Japanese dinner at their home on the vineyard where they will be dressed in traditional kimonos.

"I like the wry assurance of the narrative voice, the flashes of humor, the frequent and almost compulsive comparisons between Japan and America."

--Francine Prose, judge of the 2010 AWP Award for the Novel

Jack Burke has killed a Frenchman when he finds him raping his ex-girlfriend, Mari, in the Lakounga District of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Empire, and when the police arrest Mari and charge her with the crime, Jack breaks her out of jail, and along with Faith, an American Baptist missionary, they make a run for Cameroon and the sea where they hope to find a ship that will take them to a safe haven.