Edition Noema - Böcker

Johnny Tricorn, an anxious movie critic in L.A., is in love with Betty Velasquez, but his life takes a turn when he interviews the princess of Angora and encounters his abusive ex, Carolina. Over two intense days, Johnny must confront his past to secure his future with Betty.

Chia Pao-yu is alive and well! The Beijing University pro-democracy activist is living in exile under an assumed name, Jean Valjaur (JV). As was rumored in the prequel, Year of the Earth Serpent Changing Colors, Chia was not executed for helping to organize the April-June 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Now in Paris, he witnesses the Bataclan terrorist attacks, the Yellow Vest protests, and survives the COVID-19 (or Horseshoe Bat) pandemic—after having survived the AIDS pandemic in China in the 1980s. He pursues his self-study of Asian influence on Pop artists and Beat poets. He likewise critiques the views of western “Maoists,” like Mylex H. Galvin—whom Chia depicts as a “Wokeist” before his time. During the pandemic lockdown, Chia reflects on the reasons why he became a pro-democracy, pro-environment and anti-nuclear dissident. In Paris, Chia finds work with the Foundation for Human Values Forever (HVF), directed by the charismatic feminist Bereft LaPlante. He meets dissidents like himself who have suffered for their political views and gender. Now a French citizen, Chia participates in Hong Kong protests, and takes part in a conference on the “Future of China” in Washington, D.C. There, he witnesses President Trump’s threat to call in U.S. "G.I. Joes" to repress protests in June 2020—a threat that recalls the June 1989 Tiananmen Square repression by the People’s Liberation Army. Back in Paris, he accidentally learns that the HVF Foundation finances questionable activities not related to humanitarian causes—and quits after a drunken LaPlante, accused of anti-Semitism, attempts to seduce him. He then starts to work for the secretive Society for the Exploration of Cosmic Consciousness (SECC) that publishes a version of his “Planetary Manifesto” that is redacted by Artificial Intelligence. His warning now appears lost in the babble of Social Media: If the U.S. Balding Eagle, the Chinese Red Dragon, and the Russian Double-Headed Eagle cannot soon resolve their differences, then the popular hopes of “Barbies” and “Kens” for global peace will soon be crushed by the boots of "G.I. Joe" and rival militias. Chia soon disappears in a suspected trade-off for a Western spy held by Beijing—at least that is how the Global News Media carries the story.

The book tells the fascinating story of a family deciding to exit the demands of life in northern Europe and head for a sub-tropical life on an Atlantic island. A planned one-year stay expands into three years, but ends with a debilitating tug of war between husband and wife about whether to return north or not. The story which began so beautifully grinds to a sad end. The place they had ended up living was in a ramshackle house, covered in bougainvillea in a tiny, unspoilt village with no tourists since there was no beach. (However, unbeknown to outsiders, down a steep run of steps was an amazing large rock pool that had breathlessly clear water and only a couple of other swimmers.) When not swimming or doing up the house, the couple worked—in Jeany’s case at her opera concerts and in Jonathan’s case writing a history of Amnesty International, which Penguin had commissioned. Their eight-year old daughter, Jenny, went to the local village school. She spoke no Spanish but within three months she was fluent.