With the Flip of A Coin
More than thirty years after being discharged from the Army, Stephen Jackson is still haunted by a vivid and disturbing nightmare. When he finally decides to get some help, the path to the answers he seeks is littered with unexpected obstacles. Like a stone thrown into still water, the ripples of Stephen’s journey will reach out farther than he could ever have imagined, touching the lives of people he has never met. Author John Wesley Fisher tells this tale, his third novel with the Vietnam War at its center, in a tightly crafted story that addresses the far reaching consequences of war itself for both those who fought and those whose lives touch theirs. In this, John Fisher’s third novel and fourth book on the Vietnam War and its aftermath, we are taken on a fictional journey that reads like a thriller but is in truth many things at once. Flip is spiritual pilgrimage for self-knowledge, Eastern wisdom and war healing. It is a vivid travel guide to the new Vietnam. It is reportage, based on the author’s personal experiences, on the boons gained by American veterans who return. Flip offers psychological and historical lessons about war and its aftermath and immerses the reader, along with the characters, in Vietnamese culture. John Fisher’s novel provides the thrill of a good adventure story while mapping a path to hope and healing, forgiveness and reconciliation for us all.—Edward Tick, Ph.D., Executive Director, Soldier’s Heart, author of War and the Soul and Warrior’s Return