I have been asked by many people how this novel came to be. I tell them, in 1986, I set out on a well-planned trip to explore every corner of my new home in America… by bicycle. I added Canada and Mexico to the risky bargain. I knocked on stranger’s doors and asked to sleep on their lawns. Nobody said no. Instead, they not only took me in but they also fed me, they did my laundry, they took me to their schools, they took me to their workplaces and they took me to their churches. It was viewing lives close up. Then suddenly it was an expansive and valuable view of the country at the same time.

After over 14,000 miles and more than two years ride, I was so impacted, I returned home and decided to write this novel. It was meant as an interpretation and summation of what I had witnessed. It was also meant to be the first of three interlocking stories about just what those experiences might portend. Most of all, the stories were meant to be as expansive and as vast as the country. This first novel, written 37 years ago, seems drawn from today’s headlines and therefore, even more relevant than ever.