The Island Country

“A post-World War Two family saga that is by turns sedate and explosive, perspicacious and intimate… it peels back the flimsy veneer of respectability and breaches the shield of duty to expose the simmering passions and resentments lurking behind the façade of the all-American family… a poignant and thought-provoking exploration of the nature of family and the innate drive to find a place to belong.”
—The Independent Book Review

“…a sendup of the moral hypocrisy of the age.”
—Kirkus Reviews

AMAZON: The Island Country
GOODREADS: The Island Country

Long Island, New York, just after World War II, when the country was great for some and not so great for others, home to the Smith Family: Philip, a racist Nassau County detective with a secret; his mentally ill wife, Eunice, speeding around the house looking for her coffee can of prescription pills; their oldest son, Philip Jr., aspiring pastor and budding monster; daughter Joyce, with a serious artistic talent that, in the great mall culture, she doesn’t know what to do with; and Oscar, an obese child who wants nothing more than to be a fireman when he grows up.

After surviving her own dysfunctional childhood, Joyce marries Roger, a beeraholic Customs Inspector with whom she would have two children: Griff, an enterprising lad fully comfortable on the other side of a line, and Stacy, a girl attuned to a dark frequency few can perceive.

Decades go by, marriages fall apart, children long to escape, and Joyce struggles to find happiness in her art and life in the only place she would ever know.

Excerpts from The Island Country

History of von Schatt (1913-1960)

“For all its darkness, warfare, and tragedy, History of von Schatt (1913-1960) is still a highly amusing story about a man who, while he arguably fails to capture the heart, certainly captures the imagination. Daub’s portrayal of Heinrich’s intensely turbulent life, as well as the earth-shattering events that unfold around him and the various peculiar persons he meets along the way, together ensure that his story is surreally engaging and thought-provoking throughout.
—The Independent Book Review

“Overall, it’s a delightful book about a person who inspires no delight… An often enjoyable tale of an unpleasant man.”
—Kirkus Reviews

AMAZON: History of von Schatt (1913-1960)
GOODREADS: History of von Schatt (1913-1960)

The man, the monster…

This history chronicles the origin of the von Schatt family: from the abandonment of its patriarch, Heinrich, on the steps of an orphanage in prewar Germany; through his apprenticeship on the high seas with a salty drunken smuggler; his flight from the Nazis to Sweden; his kidnapping of a child bride to America; his becoming the most feared Captain in the US military troop transport fleet; his concurrent role as husband and father of two dysfunctional Long Island families; and his lifelong obsession to uncover the secret behind a set of coordinates he’d found written on an old map.

Excerpts from History of von Schatt (1913-1960)