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| Voices of the Locusts |
Title: Voices of the Locusts
Author: Ron Hutchison
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Create Space
Format: Paperback and ebook
Purchase at Amazon
About
Voices of the Locusts
Sixteen-year old Jack O’Brien has never known the
bittersweet stint of love, and romance is the farthest thing from his mind as
he and his family arrives at a remote U.S. Air Force outpost in Japan where
Jack’s father is base commander. The year is 1948. Jack’s life changes after a
chance encounter with Fujiko Kobaysi, a beautiful and enchanting 17-year-old
Japanese girl. Jack is immediately smitten.
Fujiko’s traditional parents are overly protective
and monitor her every move, and Jack and Fujiko meet secretly at her garden,
located some distance from her village. There is a good reason why Fujiko’s
parents are so protective and Jack is devastated when Fujiko tells him that her
parents have promised her in marriage to an older man, a practice common
throughout Asia at the time. The marriage is only a months away. Jack devises a
cunning plan, one that will overshadow her arranged marriage and bring Fujiko
and him together.
Playing against a backdrop of swirling post-War
social change, Voices of the Locusts tells the story of three families – one
black, one white, one Asian. Told in Jack’s voice in vivid and sometimes
haunting detail, Jack and Fujiko are frustrated in their romantic quest by
story characters coming to terms (often violently) with the emotional scars of
World War II.
Voices
of the Locusts Book Excerpt
A
flutter of panic races through my body. It is instantly replaced by a sweep of
joy, and a strange, unnatural lucidity overcomes me.
Fujiko
and I hesitate for what seems a small eternity, our eyes locked in a moment of
mutual understanding. Finally, I lean in toward Fujiko and she leans in toward
me. Our eyes close and our mouths touch in a whisper-soft kiss, a brief, gentle
brush of lips.
I pull back slowly, my heart racing, my
head alive with all manner of strange, warm images. This must all be a dream. A
wonderful, glorious dream. I don’t want to ever wake up.
About
Ron Hutchison
Ron Hutchison
began writing fiction full time after a long career in journalism and public
relations. Voices
of the Locusts is his fourth novel. A multi-genre author, Hutchison’s
choice of novels to write is determined not by genre, but by the weight of the
story. Hutchison graduated from the University of Missouri in 1967 with a
degree in journalism. He has worked as a reporter, editor, and columnist at
newspapers in Texas, California, and Missouri. He was employed by a Fortune 100
company as a public relations executive, and later operated his own public
relations agency. Hutchison attended high school in Japan, and much of his Voices of the Locusts is based on
personal experience. Hutchison lives in Joplin, Missouri.
