Author Description

<p>Salt of the Nation is the story of Harry McBride, a disillusioned gravel plant worker who impulsively slugs the Republican presidential nominee during a campaign photo-op and instantly becomes America's most famous fugitive and newest hero. </p> <p><p>Harry's vicious punch is caught on camera and immediately goes viral as he flees the scene of his crime and heads for Mexico. While being pursued across the country by a zealous born again private investigator, Harry is taunted via the airwaves by Grover Budd, a Rush Limbaugh-like radio host who doggedly portrays Harry as a subversive agent of the "socialist" Democratic Party. </p> <p><p>Despite Grover Budd's efforts, Harry soon becomes a role model to working-class men and a sex symbol to disaffected women longing to escape their unfulfilling lives. To a single mother he meets, Harry is a healer with the power to cure her chronically-ill son. College professors start teaching ad-hoc courses on Harry, a song about him goes to number one, and radio stations stage Harry McBride Punch-Out Contests to raise money for the troops. That's not to mention the Harry McBride Society, hastily contrived to cash in on the free-floating rage and frustration to which Harry has given a name and a face. </p> <p><p>Set during the run-up to a pivotal presidential election, Salt of the Nation is more than a road story; it's a novel about a land riven by broken promises, thwarted dreams, and populism gone awry. It's the story of a contemporary America equally divided and galvanized by an ordinary man's rash act and desperate journey.</p>