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Ghost Dance by Ian R Mitchell – The First Trumpland Political Thriller published October, 2017

It is January 2017. Donald Trump has just assumed the US presidency and become the world’s most powerful man. The world is in shock – and fear, as it watches the jubilation this event causes over large parts of the United States.

Two friends set out on a road trip through the American West, just subsequent to the inauguration of Trump. One is Thomas, a Scottish freelance journalist familiar with the area, who is looking for copy for newspaper articles from the trip. The other is Louis, an American, a recently-divorced academic who has lived in Europe for over 20 years, and, stunned by the election result, wants to “find America” – and seek amorous adventures.

The journey starts in El Paso where “No-one goes on vacation” and takes them on an Odyssey through the wilds of West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Montana. They encounter the death agonies of rural and small town America in abandoned mining towns and witness agricultural decay, in an area unknown – and often despised – by many Americans. This is the heart of Trumpland, the boondocks fly-over states of ill educated ill informed and very angry people who are both witnessing and experiencing at first hand the Decline of the American Empire. The two friends’ encounters with Trump’s constituency are mitigated by meetings with the isolated and contrasting communities of ageing hippie drop outs, Native Americans, Hispanics and Mormons who also inhabit these little-known regions.

Life as ever in the USA imitates art, and an unwelcome incident on the Mexican border causes the friends to totally change their travel plans; then the road trip becomes a road flight that blows their odyssey totally off course and takes them to destinations unforseen, and a journey that will change both their lives in unexpected directions. Set in the template of the “far out west” road novel Ghost Dance is a serious work of political fiction, a state of the nation narrative, which is based on the author’s thorough grounding of the history, scenery, culture and social structures of the US West. The novel illustrates in chilling fashion both the anger and hate which brought Trump to power, and the frightening portents this triumph carries for America and the rest of world, though the experience of two men grappling with forces at the limits of their comprehension, and beyond the limits of their control.

IAN R MITCHELL IS THE AUTHOR OF THE ACCLAIMED TRAVEL BOOK, ENCOUNTERS IN THE AMERICAN MOUNTAIN WEST AND OF THE COLD WAR POLITICAL THRILLER WINTER IN BERLIN.

GHOST DANCE IS PUBLISHED BY THE STOBCROSS PRESS AND IS AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK OR AS A PRINT ON DEMAND DOWNLOAD FROM AMAZON.

Ghost Dance: A Trumpland Odyssey on Amazon

stobcross.press1993@gmail.com

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