David S Faldet

Gospel in an age devoid of miracles, King: A Mystery is set in the year of Obama's first election, a year of catastrophic floods. Tom King, twin brother of religious leader Joshua King, tells the story of night watchman Arnie Mikesh's investigation of the death and life of Joshua, whose car wreck he discovers on a country road. Joshua King, whose ministry is dedicated to the Spirit he addresses as ""Mother,"" provokes scorn and occasional violence from Christians, politicians, law enforcement, and powerful agricultural interests. Divisions among King's followers about whether he is the reincarnation of the Messiah trouble his ministry. Mikesh's investigation leads him from a labor organizer to cult members and a car body repairman, from rural Iowa where King has established his ministry to the state capital where King clashes with authorities. The unravelling and ultimate solution of the mystery of King's death awakens Mikesh to a new sense of himself and brings him close to Mary Towers, the woman who haunted King's life. ""King is a story, both a subtle and compelling mystery. David Faldet has woven together a story that will take the reader on a remarkable journey."" --Philip Freeman, Pepperdine University David S. Faldet has deep roots in Northeastern Iowa, where he makes his home. He teaches literature and writing at Luther College and is the author of Oneota Flow (2009).

'The river, like a keen memory, carries a record of the past.' David Faldet has spent forty years in the basin of the Upper Iowa River, which winds from the flat farm fields of southern Minnesota through the wooded valleys of northeast Iowa to the Mississippi. In this peaceful and inspiring book, Faldet tells the story of the Upper Iowa as it flows through land and people, holding true to Aldo Leopold's conception of land as a community in which water, people, and soil play interactive parts. Whether profiling the chief of the last hunter-gatherers on the river, an early settler witnessing her first prairie fire and a modern wildlife biologist using fire to manage prairies, the manager of the Granger Farmer's Co-op Creamery, or a landowner whose bottomlands are continually eaten away by floods, Faldet steadily develops the central idea that people are walking tributaries of the river basin in which they make their homes. Faldet moves through the history of life along the now-polluted Upper Iowa, always focusing on the ways people depend on the river, the environment, and the resources of the region. He blends contemporary conversations, readings from the historical record, environmental research, and personal experience to show us that the health of the river is best guaranteed by maintaining the biological communities that nurture it. In return, taking care of the Upper Iowa is the best way to take care of our future.