FIRST EDITION FAST SELLING OUT -- A first-of-its-kind WWII military fiction, The Last Fox, a Novel of the 100th/442nd RCT, is fast selling out. The first edition is selling as a collectible on Amazon.com as had an autographed copy with an inscription, "For brave new hearts," a line from a poem written by the author and included in the novel.

Representing the famed esprit de corps of the regiment, Sgt. Fred Murano is the last surviving member of a team dubbed the "four foxes" for their uncannily coordinated ability to knock out the dreaded MG-42 machine gun nests. As the last fox, he survives the war and his wounds to face his own kind of mortality as an old man at the end.

Press Release

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Bob Kono, Publisher
Abe Publishing, P.O. Box 5226, Eugene, OR 97405, USA
Tel: (541) 485-4717
Fax: 541-485-3893
E-mail: abepublishing@hotmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

First Edition Fast Selling Out

Eugene, Oregon, May 8, 2003—A first-of-its-kind WWII military fiction, The Last Fox, A Novel of the 100th/442nd RCT, is fast selling out. The first edition is selling as a collectible on Amazon.com as had an autographed copy with an inscription, For brave new hearts," a line from a poem written by the author and included in the novel. The author, Robert H. Kono, was a boy in the concentration camps during WWII when the young men volunteered to fight in Europe and distinguished themselves as the Go For Broke" GIs who served with the most decorated regiment in the history of the U.S. Army. They were known as the best combat troops in the European Theater of Operations—the Germans had to double their defenses whenever they heard the men of the 100th/442nd were on the line. In a special White House ceremony on June 21, 2000, twenty additional Medals of Honor were awarded to the men, many posthumously. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye was among the recipients.

Representing the famed esprit de corps of the regiment, Sgt. Fred Murano is the last surviving member of a team dubbed the four foxes" for their uncannily coordinated ability to knock out the dreaded MG-42 machine gun nests. The regiment had seen action up the Italian boot, all the way to the Gothic Line in the Apennine Range of mountains, when they are called upon to assist the Seventh Army in France. The regiment is given the suicidal mission of rescuing the Lost Battalion of Texans cut off by the Germans in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace-Lorraine and lose 800 men either killed or wounded in action to save a little over 200 trapped GIs. But they achieve their mission. One company—I Company—is reduced to eight men. Sgt. Murano is one of them. However, his team is gone. He returns to Italy with the regiment to break the impregnable Gothic Line, a feat accomplished in 30 minutes in a daring dawn raid that followed the scaling of a steep mountain under the cover of darkness. Without the support of the foxes, Murano is severely wounded in an assault on a dug in machine gun bunker. He survives—to face his own kind of mortality as an old man in the end.

The novel is a work of fiction but the campaigns in Italy and France are actual. The characters and battle scenes are fictional. Reviewers have said: For the tough-minded who love a good war novel, it doesnt get much better than The Last Fox"…"vivid, sensory, straightforward prose (will compel) readers to read every page from the beginning to the finish"…"Í was left emotionally drained and in awe of the small but brave warriors"…"now anyone can know what the travails of the regiment were really like"…"as real as combat can get"…"conjures up comparisons with such war writers as Crane, Hemingway and Mailers The Naked and the Dead…" The people of Bruyeres called the 442nd GIs, The Little Iron Men. Their average height was 55".

The Last Fox can be ordered through Amazon.com and BN.com. Listed at $14.95, it is a trade paperback, 322 pages (August 2001), Abe Publishing: ISBN 0971305005. An autographed copy can be ordered from the publisher by mailing a check for $14.95 plus $4 S/H for one book ($6 for two) to Abe Publishing, P.O. Box 5226, Eugene, OR 97405, USA. Visa and MasterCard accepted. For further information (re overseas postage), contact Bob Kono, Publisher, at (541) 485-4717 or by e-mail, abepublishing@hotmail.com.

Abe Publishing seeks to be a future outlet for creative writers who speak with an authentic voice to give the well-rounded reader a total reading experience, thereby celebrating diversity and eclecticism.
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