When the Almond Tree Blossoms - Softcover

Aikman, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1940269938 ISBN 13: 9781940269931

Publisher: Deep River Books LLC, 2016

Synopsis

David Aikman, former senior foreign correspondent for Time magazine, first published When the Almond Tree Blossoms in 1993, as the Cold War ended and political polarization grew in the United States. Twenty-three years later, his novel is as timely as ever. The 2016 presidential election pits unabashed socialists and jaded capitalists against each other, and the nation seems more politically polarized than it's been since the Civil War. This book is a reminder of what's at stake: not only freedom, but life and peace. It's 1998 in this alternative timeline. The US is controlled by a radical, collectivist regime bent on maintaining control despite a growing nuclear threat from the resistance. Douglas Richfield supported the People's Movement early on and now participates in its regime as an assistant adviser for protocol. He's known as an \"activist\" and a \"progressive,\" but he's not entirely at ease with the movement he's always supported. Limitations on freedom of speech, along with military police brutality, give him pause. A conversation with a beautiful stranger only increases his confusion. Perhaps the People's Movement regime is neither as secure nor as noble as he once thought. Just as these doubts begin to form, the regime takes him out of his comfortable office job and into the field, where he must choose once and for all whether his loyalties lie with the People's Movement or the Constitutionalist resistance. Aikman addresses world politics, secret agendas, and ultimately biblical prophecy in this thriller.

About this title

About the Author

David Aikman, PhD is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. He spent three decades as a foreign correspondent for Time Magazine and other news organizations. David lives in Virginia, where he recently retired as a professor of history at Patrick Henry College.

From Publishers Weekly

Set in 1998, this first novel by a senior correspondent for Time involves a reactionary but sometimes entertaining post-Cold War scenario. A second U.S. civil war pits the "Constitutionalists" against the "People's Movement" (PM), a left-wing coalition that seized power after Russia defeated the U.S. in Iran. National politics are topsy-turvy: Russia is a fascist state; the PM-run U.S. is communist, almost Maoist; while China has rejected Mao in favor of a market economy. The PC PM-ers are clearly the bad guys here and freedom under their rule is as precarious as it was under Stalin, though the PM has yet to master Stalin's efficiency in eliminating opposition. To that end they have enlisted the assistance of a Russian, Alexei Ilyich Ponomarev. Ponomarev in turn recruits supposed PM stalwart Douglas Richfield to infiltrate the Constitutionalists to discover both the identity of a Constitutionalist mole and to secure information about Project Almond, the opposition's nuclear trump card. It quickly becomes obvious which side Richfield will eventually support--especially since his love interest is active in the Constitutionalist underground. The rushed ending leaves unresolved a subplot about mutiny on a nuclear submarine and also leaves the reader feeling as though a chapter or two were missing. 50,000 first printing.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Deep River Books LLC
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1940269938
• ISBN 13: 9781940269931
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352