Foreign Seed

Set in China asAmerica gets involved in WWI, Foreign Seed follows newly minted ViceConsul Samuel Sokobin’s first case as he investigates the disappearance ofFrank Meyer (of Meyer Lemon fame), explorer for the U.S. Department of ForeignSeed and Plant Introduction, when he disappears from a steamship on the YangtzeRiver. A rugged, Dutch immigrant, Meyer made a living seeking foreign specimensas a man without a country, a feeling Sokobin denies as he ticks off one moreyear living in temporary housing in China and shielding himself from thepossibility of close friendship. Moreover, Meyer is rumored to be Jewish,igniting the prejudice Sokobin can’t shake as the son of Jewish immigrantlaborers in New Jersey. Sokobin needs to find Meyer, and quickly, if the bodyis to be properly cared for. Sokobin travels upriver with his enigmaticinterpreter, Mr. Lin, while fighting flaming visions of his fighter pilotlittle brother’s apparent demise in France. Always the hotshot, young Ethan hasbeen missing for months, and Sokobin refuses to betray him by mourning him. Thesearch for Meyer leads Sokobin from Nanking to uncharted villages to thestreets of Shanghai, where he is confronted with his past and a love that is nolonger within his reach.

“Terrific . . . The book pretty much blew me away.” —Richard Russo, author of Chances Are . . .

Allison Alsup is an award-winning writer who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. She teaches fiction workshops through the Loyola Writing Institute. Allison’s work was selected for the 2014 O’Henry Prize Stories and has appeared in the New Orleans Review, the Madison Review, River Styx, Salamander, and the New Guard, as well as The Best of Philadelphia Stories, 10th Anniversary Edition. She lives in New Orleans. You can learn more about Allison and her work at asalsup.wordpress.com.