Novel of Eco-Apocalypse Lives Again via Internet

Jonathan Lerner, whose novel "Caught in a Still Place" was published in London by Serpent's Tail but went out of print, has made the book available again on the Internet. It can be ordered as a trade-quality paperback or an ebook from Xlibris.com.

"Caught in a Still Place," Jonathan Lerner's spare, haunting novel of love and survival in the face of sweeping ecological disaster, originally published in London by Serpent's Tail, is available again.

It is sold as both a trade-quality paperback and an ebook from Xlibris.com.

"Lerner breaks the mold," said Booklist, calling the novel "candid, understated, self-effacing, funny, as stripped down as the emptied world."

"Caught in a Still Place" tells the story of a handful of survivors on a remote island on Florida's Gulf Coast. Jaydie is competent, but distracted. Young Sylvia has been rendered mute by trauma. Elderly Miss Audrey fades in and out. Julian - the narrator - loves the solitude, but seethes at his lover Richard, who ran away. Their fragile balance is rocked when Julian and Jaydie become sexually involved - and a series of lost friends reappear.

Publisher's Weekly wrote, "Replete with fine detail and a strong sense of place, this poetic first novel delves in the raw, exposed feelings of thoughtful characters."

"Some of Lerner's most effective writing," Stephen Leon commented in the Albany Voice, "comes in his simple descriptions of what it feels like to be stripped of your social life, ergo your vanity: 'She still looks pretty good, Jaydie, better maybe than in the years she was with Bullie. Things are so much simpler now. The skin on the bridge of her nose seems to be constantly peeling, and there's a copper-red cast to her suntan. She doesn't seem to care. None of us looks in mirrors anymore.'"

Leon went on to illuminate the story's unconventional take on sexuality: "Julian gradually comes to accept a sexual union with Jaydie - based not on romantic attraction as we know it but a deeper trust and respect bred by their barren circumstances. It is a minor triumph for Lerner that Julian's bisexuality seems normal and compatible; the two divergent impulses are not shown as being at odds."

Jonathan Lerner is well-known as magazine writer who covers travel and design for publications including Travel+Leisure, InStyle, Metropolis, Sky and Hemispheres. He is currently at work on the novel "Alex Underground," set in 1970's Havana.

"Caught in a Still Place" can be ordered from his web site, www.penpowerpublishing.com.

Caught in a Still Place
ISBN 0-7388-5498-0
Paperback, $16
Ebook, $8