Publishing content that matters

   © Copyright 2013-2017  Duxbury & Gloucester Publishers

What is the book like?

• It’s about corruption in the the most trusted areas of public life, where some leaders have engaged in cynical manipulation of the best part of human nature: the desire to help others.
• The novel forces the reader to visualize and confront evil. It stimulates critical thought and encourages reform.
• The story is designed to be locally amusing and globally disturbing. This can be a painful read.
• This book is for the intelligent reader. Its examples, humor and implications demand contemplation—from the double entendres in the title and subtitle to the references (of varying subtlety) in the story’s text.

Why is the book important?

• Simple morals dictate that those in charge of our charitable donations have a duty to allocate them ethically.
• People are happy to donate their money to help those less fortunate, but today many of that money’s most established caretakers allocate a massive helping of it to lining their own pockets.
• Should the leader of a charity help himself to a million-dollar salaryfrom the chairty’s donations?
• If so, should that be prominently disclosed on all requests for money?
• Have some players in this $300 billion industry (United States alone) abused the tax system to their personal advantage over the years?
• This novel can help change the world.

“Her heart pounded. She found herself panicking. She marinated in the purest form of dread—fear of the past—as she rocketed with all her might toward the frightening mystery.”

“The contrast of the majestic beauty of the palace above with the visual cacophony of the floor below made Gwendolyn remember her first and lasting impression of Paris: the feeling that she was in a beautiful and divine place built by some great, long-gone civilization of cultural giants, its remnants overrun and infested by generations of peasants…”

“They commiserated over…how most people seem too busy to concern themselves with their fellow man. It’s hard to say whether the conversation made the drinks seem sweeter or more bitter as the vehicle glided down the peninsula.”

“She had a sudden epiphany… All her life, instructions on how to think about matters like this had been supplied from others… These things were served up pre-digested, fully formed and ready for incorporation into her own compatible and unoriginal thoughts—her own rephrasing was all that was suggested.”

The preface in full: “If this story, with all its absurdities and written using only the least subtle of colors, stimulates nontrivial discussion on how those we choose to trust must live up to that standard, I have succeeded.”

Sample passages from Sustenance Through Starvation