HEAVEN LAKE

A Novel By
JOHN DALTON

Heaven Lake
Scribner Paperback available
March 8, 2005
isbn 0-7432-4635-7

* Photos of China and India by David MacTaggart (new)

* John Dalton joined the English faculty at Univeristy of Missouri - St. Louis and teaches in their expanding Master of Fine Arts Writing Program.

Scribner Hardback
April, 2004
isbn 0-7432-4634-9

The story of a young American’s quest across China in search of love and revelation, Heaven Lake, already hailed by major novelists, is an extraordinary debut in the tradition of Graham Greene. Vincent Saunders has arrived in Taiwan as a Christian volunteer. Supplementing the income from his sparsely attended Bible classes, he teaches English to a group of enthusiastic schoolgirls, and it is his tender, naive affair with one of the girls that sends Vincent on a path toward spiritual reckoning. Once the affair is discovered,Vincent is shamed into leaving town. He cannot return home and face his family, so he approaches Mr. Gwa, a businessman who earlier made Vincent a startling proposition: In exchange for a sum of money, Vincent would travel to mainland China’s Heaven Lake and marry a beautiful woman whom Mr.Gwa loves, escort her back to Taiwan, and divorce her so that Gwa may have her hand. Vincent, believing in the sacrament of marriage, had initially rebuked Gwa’s offer, but now in his disgrace, options are few. He accepts. What follows is not just an adventure, but an exploration of love, passion, friendship, and the nature of faith. John Dalton’s exquisite narrative arcs across China as gracefully as it plumbs the human heart.

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