The year is 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War. William Carson, a World War II veteran teaching in a small New England Prep School, has for more than two decades been haunted by nightmares whose content he has never shared with his wife, Anne, or their two sons, Joshua, a Marine on active duty in Vietnam, and Andrew, an ROTC college senior bound for active duty following graduation. When Joshua is reported missing in combat, the web of secrets and denial that has kept the family together for more than twenty years begins to unravel as Anne and William face the possible loss of their sons, and Andrew must confront the tangle of love, obligation, and loyalty that he feels toward his country, his father, his brother, his mother, and himself.

Nothing Left to Lose is a story of betrayal across generations – of fathers who send their sons to war and mothers who let them go – and the redeeming power of love and forgiveness.
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“In Nothing Left To Lose, the hard teachings of the Vietnam War are reflected in one family’s anguished choices, and with a depth of compassion that reveals fresh meaning for us today. This beautiful and engrossing novel lets us see with fresh eyes what war-making costs the soul of a nation, and especially its men. Here we find both a chronicle of an age and a prayer for our future, perfectly tuned to this historical moment.”
Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self
“Allan Johnson’s mournful yet ultimately hopeful novel captures beautifully what history textbooks always miss: that wars overseas exact enormous emotional and familial costs at home, and that for men especially, it can be just as heroic to resist wars as it is to fight in them.”
Jackson Katz, Ph.D., creator of video Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity and author of The Macho Paradox
About the Author
Allan G. Johnson is a writer, sociologist, and public speaker who has focused most of his career on issues of social inequality. His nonfiction books have been translated into several languages and his novel, The First Thing and the Last, was recognized by Publishers Weekly as a notable debut work of fiction in 2010 and by O Magazine as an April 2010 Great Read.