This Footstool Earth

“In This Footstool Earth John Zeugner finally dives head first into the existential pool. Standing on familiar ground, Japan and New England, he weaves disparate tales into a narrative both dense and enlightening. It is a literal and literary tour de force in which three old friends wait for their Godot while discussing, among other things, the creative process, crimes against humanity, religion, and Japanese American relations. It is a read worth the rereading.”


—Bruce Stronach, Dean, Temple University, Japan Campus





“This is a novel about writing a novel—and about the serious nature of the task. The net has been cast widely, with action moving from New England to Southeast Asia and Japan: the whole of ‘footstool earth’—kicked away by a God so weary of human abomination that he has relegated humanity to the nightmare of history. And those Asians! ‘No Jesus, no faith, no hope.’ Yet, choking in rivers of blood, they cope.”


—Joseph Lawrence, Professor of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross