THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 43 He recalls being rejected, squatting in an abandoned factory, and shivering through a winter of privation. He remembers sowing barren ground, watching the community grow, and harvesting seemingly infinite free money. He remembers longing, jealousy, violence, and deceit as their utopia turned profane. Soon he may remember why he chose to forget in the first place. Only Now We Are is an exploration of memory and loss, idealism and human nature, and the hazards of living your own truth. Nathan Kato-Wallace has been a Foreign Service officer at the State Department for 13 years. He served in Guangzhou, Praia, Washington, D.C., and Paris. He is currently serving in Dakar, where he is also AFSA’s post representative. Only Now We Are is his first novel. Speak the Devil’s Name Brandon Kelley, independently published, 2025, $12.99/paperback, e-book available, 396 pages. When a top-secret Joint Special Operations Command surveillance and reconnaissance mission goes sideways deep in Afghanistan’s unforgiving Hindu Kush Mountains, Nick Mandias is thrust into a deadly game of survival against a formidable foe he did not expect—a rogue CIA paramilitary officer who has launched an unsanctioned covert operation behind enemy lines. Half a world away, in the sweltering shadows of Southeast Asia, a young CIA case officer is pulled into the most critical assignment of his career. As he learns about the U.S. government’s penetration of the People’s Republic of China, he must navigate a dangerous web of loyalty, sacrifice, and high-stakes espionage. Brandon Kelley joined the State Department after service in the U.S. Army and completion of a master’s degree in international studies from the University of Central Florida. A Foreign Service officer since 2014, he has served in Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington, D.C. His first novel, Call Me Milt (2022), was a modern pirate tale set in the Caribbean. Tipping Point: Action 2100 (Book II) George Alfred Kennedy, SETAF Publishing, 2025, $20.00/paperback, e-book available, 337 pages. After successfully establishing her London-based Hinton Foundation, American climatologist Dr. Tracie Hinton launched a campaign for the presidential nomination. Hinton stunned the political establishment when a wave of discontent over the failure of U.S. leadership to preserve the health of planet Earth swept her and her new political party—ACTION 2100—into the White House in January 2053. The complete surprise and scope of Hinton’s victory stunned the political establishment and portends the likelihood of a permanent shift in American attitudes and political preferences. The two major political parties must now seek a temporary and unlikely alliance to preserve their historical primacy. This is the second volume in the author’s Tipping Point series, following Tipping Point: The World in 2050 (2024). George Alfred Kennedy spent 35 years in the State Department, retiring as a Senior Foreign Service officer after assignments in seven countries, including as consul general in Toronto, deputy assistant secretary, and senior adviser to Ronald Brown, the first Black secretary of Commerce. He currently lives in Arizona. Spirit of Brooklyn: A Story of Love and Heroism During World War II John Eric Lundin, independently published, 2025, $16.95/paperback, e-book available, 334 pages. Spirit of Brooklyn is a historical novel that begins in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, where two college students meet. As they fall in love, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, and their future and that of their generation is changed forever. The story follows Nils through Army Air Corps pilot training and then to piloting a B-17 bomber flying out of England. “Spirit of Brooklyn” is the name Nils and his crew give to their plane. Marie must return to England with her father, a senior British Foreign Office official, where her life takes an unforeseen turn,
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