As it is on Earth

In this modern day tale of broken moral compasses, Frances Brennan, a successful highflying lawyer, and Gino Rossi, a reformed crim, carry the two lead characters on a journey with their respective views on life and the afterlife, making use of their protective dogmas as their drivers. Their protagonist and antagonist roles appear to reverse as they each encounter some of life's serious crossroads.

Despite their abiding respect and affection for each other, the two become perilous foes, who use mentors and external creeds to justify their own deep convictions. Armed with these convictions, Frankie and Gino choose their separate courses of action, all wrapped-up in serious ethical dilemmas, right through to the thrilling end, when the line blurs between social justice and social carnage.

Ethically adrift, Frankie and Gino manage to re-purpose their opposing understandings of God to suit their conflicted consciences and behaviour. Values and principles narrow to a single purpose.

While maybe not as extreme, the novel echoes ethical dilemmas we've all faced, or may face sometime in our lives. It will challenge readers and stimulate discussion and debate about what keystones we use to sort right from wrong, and how difficult it can be sometimes to distinguish between the two.

It leads us all to consider how and why at times we do the right thing for the wrong reason, and sometimes the wrong thing for the right reason.

Not stuffy or highbrow, this book is for thinkers in the general community, as well as fiction lovers, thriller readers, faith holders, legal professionals, and even senior high school students.

As it is on Earth is Rob Firth's debut piece of fiction. Rob grew up in Sydney, Australia. Following school, he completed an under¬graduate degree at Sydney's University of Technology and a master's at Armidale's University of New England. After a short stint working in the for-profit world, Rob moved into the not-for-profit sector. Since that time, he has held paid and unpaid positions from board director through to senior executive and consultant with some of Australia's leading NFP organisations, including those delivering community health and welfare, cultural arts, and advocacy for the older generation. He is passionate about social fairness matters and is a keen participant in the not-for-profit world. Rob has travelled widely, lives on the outskirts of Sydney, is married to a musician, and has three adult children and two grandchildren.