Ponckhockie Union

Benedict Arnold Rose is a filmmaker in a troubled marriage. As he begins a documentary on the 1777 burning of New York's first capital, Kingston, by the British, his history-focused life is suddenly derailed. He faces shadowy assassins with multiple identities, indoctrination in a dark cell, seduction, betrayal, the finality of fire, and the unexpected kindness of a stranger. He must journey within, but what is real? And who is asking? Coincidence and paradox abound as Rose finds his way to a new life...but the questions without answers still remain.

Encounters with a fictional version of the well-known author Paul Auster, and with a mercenary soldier who is also a devotee of the Indian spiritual guru Nisargadatta Maharaj, entwine the metafictional with the metaphysical in a speculative swirl of mystery, history, and self-inquiry.

Brent Robison is the author of a story collection, The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility, and a novel, A Book with No Author. He lives with his wife in the Catskill Mountains.