Here & Now

by Richard A. Webster

Twenty years after their falling-out John encounters his childhood friend Arty in Iraq after the fall of Baghdad. Although both venture to the Middle East to nation-build, Arty tries to exploit the situation for personal gain while John seeks greater self-determination for the Iraqi people. Inspired by his work with two translators, Fadi, his Sunni mentor, and Zahra, an alluring Shiite who challenges him with quotes from the Qur’an, John attempts to steer Arty’s ambition but everything stops when Fadi ignites a suicide belt while all four are on a mission. Returning to the past, John and Arty spend a summer afternoon before eighth grade adventuring in the woods and park near their suburb. Their journey concludes at a party of high school students where John, resisting the pull of growing up, indirectly shames Arty who wants to join in. Later, John is a young professional inducted into the role of talent coach, cultivating capacity through shrewd observation and alignment of next steps to a developmental framework. Back to the present, John finds himself the sole survivor of Fadi’s attack. When he learns that Arty is slated to take some blame by the Coalition Government, he proposes to accept responsibility if one of Arty’s projects is allowed to proceed. Afterward John suffers the dissolution of his career, and then his marriage and family fall apart. Only at the end with John is sick in a nursing home does the full story unravel. When a doctoral candidate interviews him about the beginnings of Middle East democracy, John’s direct influence on the future-present becomes evident.

386 pages, Paperback

Published May 5, 2017