About This Book
The Iraq War draws Justin Caden, twenty-three, into a dark psychological abyss. Home in Mid-America, he confronts the life he had left behind. He wanders in reflection, introspection, and surreal encounters. Combat episodes emerge in recollections and nightmares. Fragmented stream-of-consciousness plagues his days. The only compassion he feels is the love of his Grandma, Madeline Guillaume, and his relationship with an African-Native American girl, Kim Atoka. Reading his deceased grandpa, Joseph Guillaume's memoire, Beyond Acadia, inspires Justin on a journey of self-discovery, destination Chebec, Nova Scotia, the birthplace of his grandparents. On the road he meets and hears the voices of grassroots Americans, poets, and a storyteller. He participates in a tornado disaster and rescues a runaway teenage girl. In Portland Maine, he boards the ferry that takes him across the Bay of Fundy to Chebec. In Chebec, he befriends an Acadian girl, Stacy Cottreau. Legendary Redemption Island looms off shore, and like it did to his grandpa decades before, lures Justin. Knowing the mythical island has freed men of torments, he also knows that it has driven others deeper into despair ...
