AwardWinning Author Jonathan DeCoteaus The Naked Earth Explores the Horror and Redemptive Value of War



The Naked Earth reveals the story of Evan "Sindbad" Al-Mohummad, an Iraqi-American who specializes in photographing dead bodies for the military in the current Iraq war. While investigating a bizarre double homicide in Basra, Sindbad discovers that the murder is the beginning of a genocide Western governments did nothing to stop. Underworld warlords place the death mark upon him, impeding his investigation at every turn. Despite their efforts, Sindbad learns that Basra's gangsters annihilated his family's ancestral home, Jannah-Ri. Vowing revenge, Sindbad commits a crime against his fellow man so brutal that it costs him his humanity. Back in America, he must live with his conscience until he leaves on a quest of self-discovery and redemption that will forever change the naked earth of Iraq.

Richly lyrical and deeply spiritual, the novel describes in explicit terms how the brutality and horrors of war affect a young man fighting terror and sadness in his own past. Through the lens of his camera, Sindbad documents the lurid results of genocide in Iraq and is devastated to find himself lured into similar acts of violence. His struggle to atone for his sins leads him back to Iraq to sacrifice himself in a final act of martyrdom in hopes of providing a future for the remaining Iraqi survivors. The novel is a combination of allusive writing, with references to One Thousand and One Nights and research inspired by news reports on the brutal killings occurring in Basra. One of its main characters, the missionary leader Abbas, is inspired by the real-life story of Marla Ruzicka, an American girl who sacrificed her life to care for war orphans.

"The novel came to me in the classroom as I was teaching an excerpt from Wiesenthal's The Sunflower," said DeCoteau. "I wondered whether the Nazi officer who murdered the innocent and begged understanding of a Jewish internee while on his deathbed would be so remorseful had he lived. Sindbad became the officer's representative in the current war; he is a good man who commits great evil and then has to live in his own skin until he makes the ultimate sacrifice for peace and salvation."

DeCoteau was born in Hartford, Connecticut, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Hartford and received his Master of Arts degree from Trinity College, where he studied under Pen Faulkner Award finalist William Henry Lewis. In addition to his 2007 National Indie Excellence Award in General Fiction for The Naked Earth, DeCoteau received the 2005 Eric Hoffer Book Award in General Fiction for his rural story collection Sing of the High Country. DeCoteau also received the Phyllis B. Abrahms Award for Fiction and the Joseph Doyle Award for Nonfiction, and earned a grant from The Suffield Council for the Arts (1999). He has edited the Scholastic Press Forum Award-winning literary anthology The Glory and the Dream, and his work has been published in the literary journal Reader's Quarterly. DeCoteau taught at Westfield State College and is currently a teacher of English and Journalism at Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts.

    

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AwardWinning Author Jonathan DeCoteaus The Naked Earth Explores the Horror and Redemptive Value of War