Soldiers in Hiding (28 page)

Fiction
528 pages
$16.95
ISBN 0-9766311-0-5
WINNER, 2005 LANGUM PRIZE
FOR HISTORICAL FICTION

PETER DONAHUE'S DEBUT NOVEL chronicles turn- of-the - century Seattle's explosive transformation from frontier outpost to major metropolis. Maddie Ingram, owner of Madison House, and her quirky and endearing boarders find their lives inextricably linked when the city decides to re-grade Denny Hill and the fate of Madison House hangs in the balance. Clyde Hunssler, Maddie's albino handyman and furtive love interest; James Colter, a muckraking black journalist who owns and publishes the Seattle
Sentry
newspaper; and Chiridah Simpson, an aspiring stage actress forced into prostitution and morphine addiction while working in the city's corrupt vaudeville theater, all call Madison House home. Had E.L. Doctorow and Charles Dickens met on the streets of Seattle, they couldn't have created a better book.

PETER DONAHUE SEEMS TO HAVE A MAP OF OLD SEATTLE in his head. No novel extant is nearly as thorough in its presentation of the early city, and all future attempts in its historical vein will be made in light of this book.

MADISON HOUSE
TREATS READERS to a boarding house full of fascinating and lovable characters as they create their own identities and contribute to early 20
^th
century life in Seattle. Every page reflects Peter Donahue's meticulous and imaginative recreation of a lively and engaging moment in American history. I loved reading this novel and sharing in the pleasures and labors of the diverse and authentic inhabitants of a remarkable city.

D'Arcy Fallon

Memoir
224 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9716915-3-3

THIS MEMOIR OFFERS AN IRREVERENT, fly-on-the-wall view of the Lighthouse Ranch, the Christian commune D'Arcy Fallon called home for three years in the mid-1970s. At eighteen years old, when life's questions overwhelmed her and reconciling her family past with her future seemed impossible, she accidentally came upon the Ranch during a hitchhike gone awry. Perched on a windswept bluff in Loleta, a dozen miles from anywhere in Northern California, this community of lost and found twenty-somethings lured her in with promises of abounding love, spiritual serenity, and a hardy, pioneer existence. What she didn't count on was the fog.

I FOUND FALLON'S STORY FASCINATING, as will anyone who has ever wondered about the role women play in fundamental religious sects. What would draw an otherwise independent woman to a life of menial labor and subservience? Fallon's answer is this story, both an inside look at 70s commune life and a funny, irreverent, poignant coming of age.

PART ADVENTURE STORY, part cautionary tale,
So Late, So Soon
explores the boundaries between selflessness and having no sense of self; between needing and wanting; between the sacred and the profane. Sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious, Fallon's account of her young life in a California Christian commune engagingly illustrates the complexities of desire and the deeply-rooted longing we all feel to be taken in, accepted, and loved. Shame, lust, compassion, and enlightenment—all find their place in Fallon's honest retelling of her quest for community.

Mark Mordue

Memoir
316 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9716915-6-8

AUSTRALIAN JOURNALIST MARK MORDUE invites you on a journey that ranges from a Rolling Stones concert in Istanbul to talking with mullahs and junkies in Tehran, from a cricket match in Calcutta to an S&M bar in New York, and to many points in between, exploring countries most Americans never see as well as issues of world citizenship in the 21
^st
century. Written in the tradition of literary journalism,
Dastgah
will take you to all kinds of places, across the world …and inside yourself.

I JUST TOOK A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD in one go, first zigzagging my way through this incredible book, and finally, almost feverishly, making sure I hadn't missed out on a chapter along the way. I'm not sure what I'd call it now: A road movie of the mind, a diary, a love story, a new version of the subterranean homesick and wanderlust blues – anyway, it's a great ride. Paul Bowles and Kerouac are in the back, and Mark Mordue has taken over the wheel of that pickup truck from Bruce Chatwin, who's dozing in the passenger seat.

WIDE - AWAKE AND SENSUOUSLY LYRICAL, Mark Mordue's
Dastgah
gets in behind the shell of the familiar, reminding us that the world is vast and strange and that everything is—in case we've forgotten—happening for the first time.

AN EXTRAORDINARY AND DAZZLING VOYAGE across continents and into the mind. Mordue's book is almost impossible to summarize—reportage, reflection and poetry are all conjured onto the page as he grapples with the state of the world and his place in it.

Scott Nadelson

Fiction
280 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9766311-2-1

IN HIS FOLLOW-UP to the award-winning
Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories
, Nadelson captures Jewish New Jersey subur - banites in moments of crucial transition, when they have the opportunity to connect with those closest to them or forever miss their chance for true intimacy. In “The Headhunter,” two men develop an unlikely friendship when recruiter Len Siegel places Howard Rifkin in his ideal job. Len and Howard buy houses on the same street, but after twenty years their friendship comes to an abrupt and surprising end. In the title story, Noa Nechemia and her father have immigrated from Israel to Chatwin, New Jer - sey, following the death of her mother. In one moment of insight following a disastrous prom night, Noa discovers her ability to transcend grief and determine the direction of her own life. And in “Half a Day in Halifax” two people meet on a cruise ship where their shared lack of enthusiasm for their trip sparks the possibility of romance. Nadelson's stories are sympathetic, heart-breaking, and funny as they investigate the characters' fragile emotional bonds and the fears that often cause them to falter or fail.

THESE STORIES ARE RICH, involving, and multi-layered. They draw you in gradually, so that you become immersed in these characters and their lives almost without realizing it. An enticing collection.

NADELSON, A TIRELESS INVESTIGATOR of the missed opportunity, works in clear prose that possesses a tremolo just below the surface. His narratives about contemporary American Jews are absorbing and satisfying, laying bare all manner of human imperfections and sweet, sad compensatory behaviors.

Scott Nadelson

Fiction
220 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9716915-2-5
WINNER, 2004 OREGON BOOK AWARD
WINNER, 2005 GCLA NEW WRITER'S AWARD

SCOTT NADELSON'S INTERRELATED STORIES are graceful, vivid narratives that bring into sudden focus the spirit and the stubborn resilience of the Brickmans, a Jewish family of four living in suburban New Jersey. The central character, Daniel Brickman, forges obstinately through his own plots and desires as he strug-gles to balance his sense of identity with his longing to gain acceptance from his family and peers. This fierce collection provides an unblinking examination of family life and the human instinct for attachment.

THESE EXTREMELY WELL-WRITTEN and elegantly wrought stories are rigorous, nuanced explorations of emotional and cultural limbo-states.
Saving Stanley
is a substantial, serious, and intelligent contribution to contemporary Jewish American writing.

SCOTT NADELSON PLAYFULLY INTRODUCES US to a fascinating family of characters with sharp and entertaining psychological observations in gracefully beautiful language, remini-scent of young Updike. I wish I could write such sentences. There is a lot of eros and humor here – a perfectly enjoyable book.