"Striking and memorable, elegant and economical, Souvenirs brings to life the Ivory Coast as seen through the eyes of a young American Peace Corps volunteer just a year removed from her college sorority in Wisconsin. Julia Lauer-Cheenne's vibrant, sensual prose and her extraordinarily vivid and precise details, generate heat---a shimmering blaze of restless sun and intense passion. The characters seem to live on even after you read the final sentence."

 

Marly Swick

Author of Evening News (Little, Brown, and Company)

 

______________________________________________________

 

“Souvenirs is an evocative, pungent novel, an intriguing reflection upon what happens when hearts and cultures collide."

 

Warren F. Motte

Author of Fables of the Novel (Dalkey Archive Press)

 

______________________________________________________

 

“Fast moving and insightful, impossible to put down."

 

Kris Clark

Tipton Conservative Newspaper (Tipton, Iowa)

 

______________________________________________________

 

 

“A spiritual journey of love and self-discovery, Ruth and Kwassi's story is moving and expansive. There's magic, mystery, and tropical heat that burns up the page. Souvenirs is a poetic meditation on youth, idealism, and the power to heal. A lovely first novel that resonates long after the final word."

 

Cari Callis

Author of Life and Death on The Dub Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd adn Philosophy (Open Court)

 

______________________________________________________

  

“Julia Lauer-Cheenne has written an exquisite story of a doomed love affair. Told in spare and elegant prose, Souvenirs is set against the lush backdrop of a small Ivory Coast village where Ruth, the female protagonist, a naive Peace Corps volunteer, is unwittingly caught between forces desiring progress and those committed to tribal customs. What Ruth cannot know is that Kwassi, the man she loves, is central to the latter, and that their love at the heart of the conflict is bigger than both of them. Souvenirs is a wonderful debut, and its publication sends a signal to the literary world that this is a writer to watch."

 

Ladette Randolph

Author of This Is Not the Tropics (University of Wisconsin Press)

 

______________________________________________________

 

 

“A suspensful love story, replete with lush descriptions and memorable characters, Souvenirs explores the meaning of place, culture, and memory against the backdrop of encroaching westernization while giving careful attention to the passions and prejudices of the times. This book is a real page-turner!"

 

Garnett Kilberg Cohen

Author of Lost Women, Banished Souls (University of Missouri Press) / Winner of Crazyhorse and Lawrence Foundation Fiction awards.

 

______________________________________________________

 

“Souvenirs is that rarest of books, powerfully exploring our shared humanity while at the same time acknowledging the deep rifts that divide us. Knowledgeable, lyric, and a pleasure to read...I highly recommend it."

 

Paul Eggers

Author of Saviors (Harcourt Brace & Company) and How the Water Feels (Southern Methodist University Press)

 

_______________________________________________________

 

“When Ruth and Kwassi cross paths, the attraction is mutual and immediate, and the trajectory of their romance inevitable. As their relationship runs its course, both learn that the most enduring souvenirs are not the trinkets or treasures one bargains for, but the sensual particulars of place that etch themselves into memory and the people one meets along the way."

 

Grace Bauer

Author of Retreats and Recognitions (Dalkey Archive Press)

 

______________________________________________________

During the mid-seventies Ruth travels to the tropical jungle of Africa's Ivory Coast to begin her service in the Peace Corps. She meets Ivorian school teacher, Kwassi, and finds herself unable to resist his charms. Little does Ruth know about Kwassi's future as tribal leader and inheritor of the secret healing power of the Sekepone.

Ruth and Kwassi meet in the rainy season at the beginning of Ruth's two-year term with the Peace Corps. Although she initially resists his advances, Ruth soon succombs to Kwassi's charm that is connected to the spirit world of his native upbringing.

Although educated and "Westernized" to a degree, Kwassi has a future of which Ruth is unaware. As inheritor of the Sekepone, the secret power to cure disease and illness, he is destined to marry a young woman chosen by his tribe, and continue his apprenticeship of sacred duties under the tutelage of his uncle, the Spirit Master of their village.

While she fights to understand the complex web of his culture's magic and mystery, Kwassi becomes a victim of his own spells and falls more deeply in love with Ruth.

As lovers they spiral into a web of contradictions, clashes of culture, and misperception. As individuals, they struggle to accept their separate destinies - before it is too late.