The American People, Vol. 1: Search for My Heart

Publisher Marketing: The long-awaited new novel by America s master playwright and activist a radical reimagining of our history and our hopes and fearsForty years in the making, "The American People" embodies Larry Kramer s vision of his beloved and accursed homeland. As the founder of ACT UP and the author of "Faggots" and "The Normal Heart," Kramer has decisively affected American lives and letters. Here, as only he can, he tells the heartbreaking and heroic story of one nation under a plague, contaminated by greed, hate, and disease yet host to transcendent acts of courage and kindness. In this magisterial novel s sweeping first volume, which runs up to the 1950s, we meet prehistoric monkeys who spread a peculiar virus, a Native American shaman whose sexual explorations mutate into occult visions, and early English settlers who live as loving same-sex couples only to fall victim to the forces of bigotry. George Washington and Alexander Hamilton revel in unexpected intimacies, and John Wilkes Booth s motives for assassinating Abraham Lincoln are thoroughly revised. In the twentieth century, the nightmare of history deepens as a religious sect conspires with eugenicists, McCarthyites, and Ivy Leaguers to exterminate homosexuals, and the AIDS virus begins to spread. Against all this, Kramer sets the tender story of a middle-class family outside Washington, DC, trying to get along in the darkest of times."The American People" is a work of ribald satire, prophetic anger, and dazzling imagination. It is an encyclopedic indictment written with outrageous love." Contributor Bio:  Kramer, Larry Larry Kramer, the founder and former chairman and CEO of MarketWatch, Inc., is currently an adjunct professor of media management at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Over the course of his career, he has been a senior adviser at Polaris Venture Partners, a venture capital firm, and served as the first president of CBS Digital Media. He currently serves on the board of directors of sev-eral media and technology companies, including Discovery, American Media, and Answers.com, and is an advisor to tech and digital startups such as JibJab, Newser, Crossborders.tv, and others. Kramer also spent more than twenty years as a reporter and editor at the San Francisco Examiner, the Washington Post, and the Trenton Times. He divides his time between Tiburon, California, and New York City. Contributor Bio:  Dean, Robertson Robertson Dean has recorded hundreds of audiobooks in most every genre. He's been nominated for several Audie Awards, won eight Earphones Awards, and was named one of AudioFile magazine's Best Voices of 2010. He lives in Los Angeles, where he records books and acts in film, TV, and (especially) on stage. Contributor Bio:  Burns, Traber Traber Burns worked for thirty-five years in regional theater, including the New York, Oregon, and Alabama Shakespeare festivals. He also spent five years in Los Angeles appearing in many television productions and commercials, including Lost, Close to Home, Without a Trace, Boston Legal, Grey s Anatomy, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, and others. Contributor Bio:  Szarabajka, Keith Keith Szarabajka has appeared in many films, including The Dark Knight, Missing, and A Perfect World, and on such television shows as The Equalizer, Angel, Cold Case, Golden Years, and Profit. Szarabajka has also appeared in several episodes of Selected Stories for National Public Radio. He won the 2001 AudieAward for Unabridged Fiction for his reading of Tom Robbins Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. Contributor Bio:  Porter, Ray Ray Porter is an AudioFile Earphones Award winning narrator and fifteen-year veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Almost Famous, ER, and Frasier. Contributor Bio:  Hicks, Laura Laura Hicks is an Obie Award winning actress who has appeared on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater, film, and television. A native New Yorker and a Juilliard graduate, she has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Australia, Austria, Italy, and Ireland. Contributor Bio:  Gardner, Grover Grover Gardner has narrated over 650 audiobooks, been named one of the Best Voices of the Century by "AudioFile" magazine, and has received over twenty "AudioFile" Earphones Awards, as well as two coveted Audie Awards. Contributor Bio:  Turpin, Bahni Bahni Turpin is an ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company. Based in Los Angeles, Bahni has appeared in numerous television productions as well as films. She is also a yoga instructor, and the founder of SoLA Food Co-op. Contributor Bio:  Patton, Chris Chris Patton has been a voiceover artist for fifteen years, and has acted onstage most of his life. He's voiced over 200 Anime titles, over fifty audiobooks, many commercials, a handful of video games, and many e-learning and corporate training projects. Chris is also the frontman and lyricist for the synthpop band Paul Lynde is Dead. He's a recent resident of Maryland, and a native Texan. Contributor Bio:  Potter, Kirsten Kirsten Potter, a graduate of Boston University's School for the Arts, has performed on stage, film, and television. An award-winning audiobook narrator, Kirsten has won AudioFile Earphones Awards for The Snowball and her performance as Barbara in Major Barbara. Her other titles include Madapple, a Booklist Editors' Choice for Best Audiobook 2008. Kirsten has received recognition from the American Academy of Achievement and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and numerous regional awards. Contributor Bio:  Runnette, Sean Sean Runnette, a multiple "AudioFile" Earphones Award winner, has produced several Audie Award winning audiobooks. He is a member of the American Repertory Theater company, and his television and film appearances include "Two If by Sea", "Copland", "Sex and the City", "Law & Order", and "Third Watch". Contributor Bio:  Andrews, MacLeod MacLeod Andrews is an actor, voice actor, and audiobook narrator. The narrator of more than one hundred audiobooks, he is a company member of Rising Phoenix Repertory in Los Angeles. Contributor Bio:  MacDuffie, Carrington Carrington MacDuffie is a voice actor, recording artist, poet, and spoken-word performer who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, received numerous "AudioFile" Earphones Awards, and has been a frequent finalist for the Audie Award, including for her original audiobook "Many Things Invisible". Contributor Bio:  Garcia, Paul Michael Paul Michael Garcia, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner and former company member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, received his classical training in theater from Southern Oregon University, where he worked as an actor, director, and designer.