The Distance Between Stars
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The Distance Between Stars was chosen as a finalist in the Midwest Book Awards and a 2020 Notable Indie from Shelf Unbound.
In an African country sliding towards civil war, an American diplomat alone and adrift in his personal life searches for an investigative reporter who has gone missing in the bush.
Genre: Literary Fiction Softcover, 325 pages
Price: $20
Publisher: Water’s Edge Press
ISBN: 978-0-9992194-7-8
Release Date: May 21, 2020
Available at: Water’s Edge Press and Ingram. Also from IndieBound, Bookshop, and Amazon.
The Distance Between Stars is the story of two Americans divided by history and skin color. Joe Kellerman, white, is an accomplished diplomat who has spent his career solving difficult problems in sub-Saharan countries. Maurice Hightower, black, is a prize-winning but controversial journalist who has spent his life exposing injustice in the United States.
During a fact-finding trip to an African country that is on the verge of erupting into civil war, and where the U.S. government is accused of supporting the increasingly violent opposition, Hightower travels alone into the bush and then disappears. The dangerous assignment of finding the missing man and bringing him to safety falls to the U.S. Consul, Joe Kellerman.
The story follows Kellerman’s hunt for a man he does not admire, traces Hightower’s pursuit of a truth that ever eludes him, and balances the costs each man must pay to find redemption for a life lived imperfectly.
While the novel takes place in Africa, it is a uniquely American story.