“What We Were Making” by Peter Cloutier has been released worldwide. This 334-page, multi-layered novel, which achieved Amazon Bestseller status as #1 in the “Women in Politics” category, is a modern complexity about the great divides of our time: nature versus economy, simplicity versus modernity, wisdom versus knowledge. The meteoric relationship blossoming between the two protagonists charts a heading beyond everyday understanding into realms that elicit deeper appreciation for culture, meaning, and life underseas.
Jane is an ambitious and truth-seeking diplomat focused on British economic development and partnership. When this work brings her to a remote Indonesian island, she meets Bill, an extreme waterman from America whose moment-to-moment lifestyle couldn’t be more different than hers. The two fall into an intense romance, admiring the qualities in one another missing from themselves. While their relationship flourishes, they must also acknowledge the different lives they lead, and face the possibility that the union of their pursuits, passions, and principles may not endure.
Surrounding this intense love affair, they both work to improve the island in their own way: Jane through diplomacy and foreign aid, Bill through grassroots volunteerism and local education. Their efforts are thrown off the rails when a natural disaster affects the island, and in its aftermath, they uncover troubling truths about a conspiracy to profit from the disaster – including their own unwitting involvement.
In an endorsement from Oscar-nominated actress Mariel Hemingway, granddaughter of legendary author Ernest Hemingway, she says, “This novel and its delightful characters stand for something, and do so with the courage to make that something count. Peter’s book is a harbor for courage.”
See the full endorsement at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4FQ4jdl3pE
Cloutier’s novel skillfully combines a powerful, yet atypical love story underpinned by cognitive bias and prescient concerns of cultural deterioration, geopolitical manipulation, and unanticipated consequences. Drawing heavily on his own experiences as an aid worker, teacher, and adrenaline-chasing waterman, the author brings incredible accounts of remote island living, ethics, and values into an interconnected nexus of globalized societies, mysterious underwater wildlife, and critical marine habitat.
The underlying themes of contrast persist through each element of the story, drawing readers into the tensions of Jane and Bill’s romance, the threats they face, and the larger forces that affect the survivability of coastal communities around the planet.
What We Were Making (ISBN: 9798986295329) can be purchased through retailers worldwide, including Barnes and Noble and Amazon. The paperback retails for $15.95. Review copies and interviews are available upon request.
From the back cover:
“A masterful blend of two contrasting worlds, political and natural, Peter Cloutier’s What We Were Making is a sensational and evocative journey into the lives of two lovers suffering the greatest challenge of all: meaning. With a new layer of domesticity, romanticism, policy, and reality in each chapter, it is as multidimensional as it is tragic, and a must-read in any event.”
– JJ Hebert, USA Today, WSJ and #1 Amazon best-selling author
When the lives of two expatriates intersect at the edge of civilization, opportunity, duty and deception collide. Jane is a budding ambassador of heightened motivation, insight, and curiosity. Relentless in her pursuit of justice, ethics, and the common good, her life lacks love. Enter Bill, an adrenaline-fueled waterman who lives breath to breath, wave to wave, and fish to fish. A schoolteacher by day, he embodies the island life but without partnership. When catastrophe unfolds, the two must respond to those in need while attempting to dismantle the deeper collusion around them. In the end, the only winners are those who have the resilience to stand.
About the author:
Peter is a waterman with over twenty years working in the South Pacific, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa. He has enjoyed working with countries and communities in the development of greater marine conservation and access to justice, more resilient water, sanitation and hygiene systems, and better maternal-child health and control against infectious diseases. He is married and a proud father of two children. He was disabled after suffering a severe traumatic brain injury while working in Afghanistan and has pledged to donate a significant portion of the revenue from his writing to charitable groups located in the countries where he has worked. Learn more about Peter and his family at www.whatweweremaking.com.
About MindStir Media:
MindStir Media LLC is an award-winning book publisher. To learn more about publishing a book with MindStir Media, visit http://mindstirmedia.com or call 800-767-0531.
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