In an allegory for our time, a broke, naïve, expatriate American veteran and writer winds up in Provence during the French-Algerian War of liberation. An instinctive liberal who sympathizes with the pro-Algeria left, he finds himself writing propaganda for a leftist publisher. Captivated by a beautiful French-Algerian woman and a charismatic, English-speaking Saudi, and disillusioned by a perceived collapse of Western mores and self-esteem, he gravitates towardIslam and jihad unaware of its cultural convolutions. When he must choose between the two "houses" of jihad-War v. Peace, martyr v. moderate-he shifts from the former to the latter by virtue of an enthralling concept, thereby running afoul of both his Saudi mentor and their leftist allies, but not before his conflicted fiancée pays a price for her beauty-and for her independence. It is a love story that crosses culture, religion and reason in a world seething with religious and ideological passions.



Elmer Alan Grossberg

A native of Brooklyn, the author achieved local fame at age sixteen with a short story in Esquire magazine and the annual O. Henry Prize Stories collection. After a hitch in the navy a novel, "Farewell, My Son," in which he weighs the contradictory aspects of Communism, earned excellent reviews. He spent seven years in Europe, the first four on the G.I.Bill, then living from hand to mouth. The privation continued on his return home. More recently he spent ten years motorhoming, and is now settled in California. He has appeared in several publications here and abroad. He rewrote and republished his early novel in 2005 with a new title, "The Endless Refrain." The award-winning "Zudd, or No Bargain in Debasement" was published in 2008. Regarding the long hiatus between his early success and now, he has a song he wishes Frank Sinatra were still around to sing, "I Did It The Hard Way."