In the Land of Eternal Spring
by Alan Howard
A Most Anticipated Small Press Book of 2017!
A poignant love story and dynamic political novel on a period in our history that resonates today
Peace Corps Volunteer Laura Jenson has a lot in common with Peter Franklin, a Fulbright Scholar, whom she meets in Guatemala City in 1963. Both of them are inspired by JFK’s call to action for a new foreign policy that would help the poor and promote democracy. What they find, however, is the reality of America’s one-dimensional Cold War policies that got us into Vietnam and radicalized a generation. They fall in love as Laura becomes involved in Guatemala’s nascent revolutionary movement.
As the political situation in Guatemala erupts, Laura draws Peter into also supporting the revolutionary movement, and they begin working together clandestinely in the city and mountains. The tension builds as the government’s security forces close in on them and then trap them in a safe house.
Events
Thursday, June 15th @ 7pm, Launch event/reading/signing, Newtonville Books, 10 Langley Road, Newton Centre, Newton, MA 02459
Wednesday, June 21st @ 7pm, Reading/conversation/signing, Home of Kate Linker and Bernard Tschumi, 227 W 17th St., 6th Floor, New York, NY 10011
Monday, July 17th @ 7pm, Reading/signing, Surf City Ocean Library, 217 S. Central Ave., Surf City, NJ 08008
Wednesday, July 19th @ 1pm, Reading/signing, Beach Haven Library, 247 Beach Avenue, Beach Haven NJ 08008
In The Land of Eternal Spring
by Alan Howard
Release date: June 15, 2017
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, International Intrigue, Literary Fiction
Price: $22.95
ISBN: 978-1-941861-394
Praise for In the Land of Eternal Spring
Most Anticipated Small Press Books of 2017: “Set in Guatemala in the 1960s, Howard’s novel about politics, idealism, regret and lost love is not only profoundly moving but also timeless in its resonance.”
“Vivid and complex, this novel is a portrait of a very specific moment in history that feels just as vital today.”
“…Peter Franklin is a Fulbright scholar in Guatemala, conducting a study on the nascent literacy project. Revolution is in the air; the Cold War is escalating, and Peter has fallen hard for Laura Jenson, a Peace Corps volunteer who has become involved with the rebels…..the suffering, abuse, and oppression of the Guatemalan people give the story its emotional heft.”
—Booklist
“If Ernest Hemingway had written a novel about the Guatemalan civil war,
it may well have looked like In the Land of Eternal Spring.”
“This is a good read in the genre of young rich-world people off in a poor country getting into political trouble. But it’s also a touching love story, written from the 50-years-later perspective of a journalist (so we know he survived) filled with nostalgia…. Peter reminded me bit of Jay McInerny’s character in Bright Lights Big City: bad boy with a complicated and damaged but salvageable heart. The plot line of events, in this case sex and violence, are realistic but they are the beguiling surface over a strong romantic and sentimental – in a good way – undertow. I liked the scope of this author’s skill. 9.0/8.2”
“This novel, so beautifully written and deeply felt, reads like a haunting from a forgotten past. It captures, especially through the vividly rendered characters of its young American idealists and the choices they make, a precise moment when Guatemala—and much of Latin America—seemed balanced between two destinies. It makes you ache to go back in time and change the outcome.”
—Francisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name
“Alan Howard’s novel about idealism, violence, and love in 1960s Guatemala is timeless in its resonance. The political and the personal are brilliantly intertwined from the wry, sharp-eyed opening to the profoundly moving end.”
—Dawn Raffel, author of The Secret Life of Objects
“In the Land of Eternal Spring brings us back to an era, place and U.S. governmental policy involving the covert terrorizing of other peoples. It is an era now long forgotten by some, unknown by others. Alan Howard’s way with a story and his evocative prose render this tale believable in every detail, yet larger than life: hard as steel, tender as the wisest love, and once again a terrible premonition. I am immensely grateful for this magnificent novel.”
—Margaret Randall, author of Che on My Mind
“A remarkable love story and vivid portrait of the great dilemma of our times, our national priorities and beleaguered world…. I can’t remember when a tale so carefully and cleanly crafted, so understated and straightforward, has moved me so deeply at the end.”
—John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War
“This is a truly wonderful book…. The final pages will slam you and change
your political views forever.”
—David Mangurian, author of Children of the Incas
Interviews
About the Author
Alan Howard has written for The New York Times Magazine, the Nation, Dissent, public television and labor union publications about workers and politics in the US and many other countries around the world. He was a Fulbright Scholar at San Carlos University in Guatemala, an International Fellow at Columbia University, the Latin American correspondent for Liberation News Service, and a national volunteer leader in the 2008 and 2012 campaigns of Barack Obama. His novella Hollywood Furs was short-listed for the 2011 Paris Literary Prize. In the Land of Eternal Spring is his first novel.
Author web site: https://www.alanhowardwrites.com
