Joseph P. Lawrence

Manila Gambit

Fiction

“John Zeugner's latest novel, a fast-moving chess thriller (!) weirdly entangled in cold-war and guerrilla-war intrigue, brings together a humanitarian's love for the 'little gestures that count' with an historian's understanding of the vast geo-political structures that make us stumble and fall. The writing, moreover, mirrors the favored style of chess. Punctuated by bold gambits, it advances a complex plot with rapid-fire dialogue that sparkles with verve and wit. A wonderful read!”

The Game in the Past

Fiction

“There are things in the past too traumatic to be told. Worse, power knows how to mask its own unseemly roots. How and why the U.S. and Japan colluded to hide Japanese atrocities during World War II is a story that literally cannot be told--not as long as truth-tellers can be silenced. In this poignant and chilling novel, Zeugner shows why the historian's craft can only be completed in fiction. A stunning accomplishment.”

This Footstool Earth

Fiction

“This is a novel about writing a novel—and about the serious nature of the task. The net has been cast widely, with action moving from New England to Southeast Asia and Japan: the whole of ‘footstool earth’—kicked away by a God so weary of human abomination that he has relegated humanity to the nightmare of history. And those Asians! ‘No Jesus, no faith, no hope.’ Yet, choking in rivers of blood, they cope.”