In This Footstool Earth, the final volume of The Japan Quartet, loose ends knit, recurring characters unspool or coil anew, and, as memories of atrocity thin, fiction's tissue mutates, melding cross-cultural encounters strangely. ""In This Footstool Earth John Zeugner finally dives head first into the existential pool. Standing on familiar ground, Japan and New England, he weaves disparate tales into a narrative both dense and enlightening. It is a literal and literary tour de force in which three old friends wait for their Godot while discussing, among other things, the creative process, crimes against humanity, religion, and Japanese American relations. It is a read worth the rereading."" --Bruce Stronach, Dean, Temple University, Japan Campus ""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."" --Joseph Lawrence, Professor of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross Beyond the four volumes of The Japan Quartet (Under Hiroshima, 2013; The Game in the Past, 2017; Soldier for Christ, 2014; This Footstool Earth, 2018), John Zeugner has written a satiric chess thriller, Manila Gambit, 2016; a collection of three short novels, Food for Jackals, 2015; and a collection of short stories, Life-Arc Teaching Tales, 2015.
Industry Reviews
“In This Footstool Earth John Zeugner finally dives head first into the existential pool. Standing on familiar ground, Japan and New England, he weaves disparate tales into a narrative both dense and enlightening. It is a literal and literary tour de force in which three old friends wait for their Godot while discussing, among other things, the creative process, crimes against humanity, religion, and Japanese American relations. It is a read worth the rereading.”
—Bruce Stronach, Dean, Temple University, Japan Campus
“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.”
—Joseph Lawrence, Professor of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross
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