Never Summer

“In the mid-19th century, the itinerant Vlad D’Agostino arrives in New York City after a long stay in Japan, bringing with him a samurai mask and a terminal case of tuberculosis. In Manhattan, he learns of an innovative doctor who claims to have found a treatment for the disease using ‘alpine air,’ but Vlad will have to travel to the physician’s clinic in the Rocky Mountains, in a place known as Never Summer…. On his quest to save himself and prolong his life, he inadvertently makes discoveries about his traumatic past—and about how to live more fully in the present…. Vlad is a thoughtful hero, and Blaine seems just as interested in evoking Herman Melville’s work as he is Zane Grey’s. Adventure fans of all stripes will find something compelling in the tragic, mysterious protagonist. An original, philosophically minded Western adventure.”

—Kirkus Reviews
 

“Never Summer... not only blends a Japanese theme with the story of a wanderer through the wild West, but it is replete with evocative metaphors and images not usually seen in Western writings…. the refreshing, sparkling prose simply shines; as does the life of Vlad, who is anything but your typical Western wanderer. The result is a compelling literary piece about a nineteenth-century drifter who returns from Japan to traverse a landscape as foreign to him as the concept of his own impending demise. Readers who appreciate genre-busting, thought-provoking reads – especially those familiar with and holding an affinity for Western settings – will relish the tone and characters of Never Summer.”

—Midwest Book Review