Terrain

Marek Hussar is mobilized against the RUF in a remote stretch of war-torn Sierra Leone. Awash in a kaleidoscope of opportunism, an African general's graft draws his fireteam away from the assault and into far more insidious dangers. Freddie Oslo is a Frenchman who develops special products for an American investment banking giant in London, the financial capital of the world. But as he watches the collapse of Bear Stearns from on high and LIBOR inquiries stir below, his superiors seem to close ranks and issue directives Oslo struggles to fully understand. Threads of life and fate intersect, bound to the same body of relentless, animate force.

Marek Hussar is mobilized against the RUF in a remote stretch of war-torn Sierra Leone. Awash in a kaleidoscope of opportunism, an African general's graft draws his fireteam away from the assault and into far more insidious dangers. Argos Argyros is a Greek in Brixton, with charm and looks and dreams of acting. He's just secured a casting call that could change his prospects for good. Freddie Oslo is a Frenchman who develops special products for an American investment banking giant in London, the financial capital of the world. But as he watches the collapse of Bear Stearns from on high and LIBOR inquiries stir below, his superiors seem to close ranks and issue directives Oslo struggles to fully understand. Three threads of life and fate intersect, bound to the same body of relentless, animate force. Terrain—volume two of The Hussar Cycle—is a novel of striking structural and emotional counterpoint that braids thematic, narrative, and stylistic concerns in a singular, challenging, unexpected work of extra-genre literature.

Hesse Caplinger has written fiction, essays, profiles, and criticism. His work has appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Magazine, Glasstire, and elsewhere. He is the author of the novels "Equipment" and "Terrain."