This Crimson Valley is my third full-length novel (written after Liquid Bones).  The setting is the distant future, in which a religious group called the Avians are being persecuted by the Neo-Christians.  After forced deportation from Europe to the Americas, the Avians are discriminated against and eventually put into labor camps.  The Avians' downward spiral into a complete loss of their basic human rights intentionally parallels events of modern society.

Read the full synopsis here, and watch for publication news in the near future....

This Crimson Valley

By Cassandra Zaruba

A Synopsis

            Thousands of European families are evicted from their homes and shipped to America like mail parcels in an event known as the Great Deportation.  The reason for the evacuation is that the group of Europeans are Avians, a religious group detested by the Neo-Christians, the offspring sect of Christianity that has become dominant in this dystopian society.  Among the deported is Rezel Miznek, whose name is changed to Rusty Whitehall soon after his arrival in America.  The ever-growing prejudice against Avians results in Rusty being denied education, employment opportunities, public transportation, and eventually housing. 

            Also on the train to America were Jardin Delacroix and her family, who are victimized by similar acts of discrimination.  Then Jardin’s father makes a startling confession: he is a scholar—one who studies history.  In a society obsessed with modernity, history is taboo, and studying it is cause for severe punishment if discovered by the Neo-Christians.   Jardin herself is made a potential target when her father passes on his knowledge of history to her.  She guards her secret with her life, and it is her understanding of past events that helps her cope with the present situation. 

Jardin sees her family for the last time when she is only sixteen.  Neo-Christian officers liquidate the apartment complex where she lives, taking all the Avians to a labor camp called Streckenwald, where inmates are branded with the word “Avi” on their backs upon arrival.  The officers are merciless and the work is never-ending, but the internment at Streckenwald allows Jardin to meet Rusty Whitehall for the second time, and they forge a friendship based on their common desire to survive.  They enlist the help of Nine Plankwalker, a man in despair over losing his wife, and the three formulate a plan to escape the horrors of their surroundings and thwart the attempted genocide of the Avian people.