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Earnest and sensitive John Nelson abandoned his safe desk job with the Forest Service to join a band of radical environmental and media activists in Portland, Oregon. But when he left behind everything he knew to follow his heart, Nelson didn't realize trying to save the world would be so hard.
Against the backdrop of the Bush administration's buildup to the Iraq war, Nelson and his fellow activists Fetzer and Jen investigate war-technologies fraud and corruption at a prominent Portland university. As they close in on the truth, they face escalating danger and Nelson falls in love with a traveling Irish photographer, but she turns out to be an addict who betrays him.
As the streets of Portland erupt with anti-war protestors, the fraud investigation and the wounded relationship spiral towards a tragic climax that forces Nelson to confront everything he believes.
Parts per Million, finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, was written and researched over a decade by debut author Julia Stoops.
About the author
Julia Stoops was born in Samoa to New Zealand parents, and grew up in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Washington, D.C. She has lived in Portland, Oregon, since 1994. She has received Oregon Arts Commission fellowships for visual arts and literature, and was a resident at the Ucross Foundation in 2016.
Summary
When John Nelson abandoned his government job to join a scrappy band of activists, he didn’t realize trying to save the world would be so hard. His ideals remain strong, but his optimism is wearing thin. His fellow activists—computer hacker Jen Owens and Vietnam vet Irving Fetzer—still think he’s a square. And their radio show can’t compete with the corporate media.
Parts per Million, Julia Stoops’s socially conscious, fast-paced debut novel, is set in Portland, Oregon, in 2002. As the trio dives into anti-war protests and investigates fraud at an elite university, Nelson falls in love with an unlikely houseguest, Deirdre, a photographer from Ireland—and a recovering addict. Fetzer recognizes her condition but keeps it secret, setting off a page-turning chain of events that threatens to destroy the activists’ friendship even as they’re trying to hold the world together, one radio show at a time.
Foreword
Parts per Million was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, established by Barbara Kingsolver
Activist fiction is popular with the media, booksellers, and readers in the wake of Trump’s election
Many indie booksellers have featured politically relevant titles on endcaps and tables; Parts per Million is set in 2002 and features anti-war protests and weapons contract fraud at the start of the Iraq war
Artist Gabriel Liston will create full-page illustrations for each of the parts of the book, plus a half-page epilogue image. His work has been featured in titles by Akashic, Graywolf, and others, including Justin Hocking’s award-winning memoir The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld.
A successful Kickstarter campaign raised $5,000 toward the illustrations and proves that there is significant support for this project
Julia Stoops’s international background should help increase the range of the title.
Stranger-comes-to-town plot turns into a page-turning thriller, offering a quick pace and relationship intrigue layered with the political updates.
Portland, Oregon, setting will maximize interest from Northwest booksellers and readers—one of Forest Avenue’s strongest bases
American media continues to focus on Portland, in terms of feature stories and cultural updates, which should help increase visibility of a locally-set title
Parts per Million is part thriller, part political, featuring three unlikely roommates, so the relationships are central to the story as with any good literary fiction
