“This novel is indeed a gift to our remembrance and inspiration for our future. Collins tells a story of a movement, or movements, which need to be told. I know these stories, love them, and have lived many of them with characters bigger than life, more courageous than any heroes of the past, and a commitment to Mother Earth.”

—WINONA LADUKE,  Honor the Earth, author of All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life

 

 

“A fascinating look at movements and the people who make them up, in the spirit of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future.”

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—BILL MCKIBBEN, author of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon

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“The future imagined in Altar to An Erupting Sun bursts with strategy and celebration, spirituality and sacrifice, ritual, and reverence. It is not magic or cataclysm or a zombie apocalypse. You’ll weep because the writing is beautiful, the people feel real (and in most cases, they are thinly novelized versions of real people), and the vision is sound. This book has it all: a recipe for poppy tea, a short history of U.S. imperialism in the last 70 years, highlights of the nonviolent resistance that met it every step of the way, a compelling argument for green burials and funeral services for the living. You will fall in love with these characters, which will help you love your friends and yourself a little more. You will remember to revere this planet. You will mistrust the state a little more. You will feel called to make an altar to those you have lost. You will want more worship in your life (even just a little).”

—FRIDA BERRIGAN, activist and author of It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised By Radicals and Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood

 

 

“As one who has long admired Chuck Collins’s superbly documented writing about inequality, I followed him into a fictional past and future with fascination and enjoyment. He is as bold and on-target in this book as in his others. The story may be fanciful, but the issues are the most serious we have ever faced.”

—ADAM HOCHSHILD, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and American Midnight

 

 

“Altar introduces us to Rae Kelliher, a richly drawn heroine who accompanies us through some of the most dynamic and creative social movements of the past half-century, including present-day efforts to avert climate catastrophe. Collins weaves a riveting near-future story about the power of organized people to build resilient communities and thrive in harmony with the earth. As a lifelong campaigner, his inside depiction of grassroots movements transcends stereotypical activist caricatures and reaffirms that people make history together. A welcome antidote to a future vision of unconnected individuals and apocalyptic wastelands. This novel reminds us of the human potential to face the future with humor, possibility, and imagination.”

—TOPE FOLARIN, author of the award-winning novel, A Particular Kind of Black Man

 

 

“Chuck Collins has inspired me my entire adult life, and this book is no different. We need stories like this, a great tale about brave people who push up against the powers that be and sometimes make them budge.”

—VICKY ROBIN, author, Your Money or Your Life, and host of the podcast, “What Could Possibly Go Right?”

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“Altar offers a moving history lesson on several decades of social movements through the life of a character that is a lovable cross between an activist Forrest Gump and a modern-day Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”

—TIM DECHRISTOPHER, climate activist

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“Collins’ warm, affecting tale raises an important question, one well worth our pondering: Is there any measure or action that is too radical, too extreme if truly necessary to save the planet and its people? I love this book. Its characters will live with me now.”

—JAMES GUSTAVE “GUS” SPETH, author of They Knew: The US Federal Government’s Fifty-Year

Role in Causing the Climate Crisis, former Dean, Yale School of the Environment

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Chuck Collins starts with the unthinkable and rewinds the clock to explore what leads people to extreme actions, and the consequences of those decisions. Along the way, he asks us to question what crimes are acceptable, and what actions are judged harshly—and by whom. Altar To An Erupting Sun is an intentionally provocative book. It will leave you with questions. It will provoke thought, and hopefully conversation. If you’re lucky, you’ll find yourself discussing what really matters at this critically important time in human history.”

—RIVERA SUN author, The Dandelion Insurrection

 

 

“Literary fiction can be a tool for exploring distressing moral choices forced upon us by social or environmental circumstances. In the best instance, we get both good fiction and moral insight. That’s certainly the case here: Chuck Collins tells a gripping story that bravely probes the questions: How far would you go to stop climate change? What might be the unanticipated results? And, must you try anyway?”

—RICHARD HEINBERG Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, author of Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

 

 

“I am a longtime fan and great admirer of Chuck Collins’ work. And now a near-future novel that charts new territory in envisioning a relocalized, democratic, sustainable, and resilient future. Wow!”
 

–FRANCES MOORE LAPPE, author, Diet for a Small Planet, cofounder, Small Planet Institute

 

 

“As a person raised in an activist household, Altar to Erupting Sun brought back a flood of memories of the campaigns and political moments of my childhood. The story also brought into focus the life choices of my adulthood and their political context. This is contemporary fiction at its best, delving into the personal amidst the political while providing a radical yet realistic hope for the future.”
 

—DEDRICK ASANTE-MUHAMMAD, author, activist, and Chief for Race, Wealth, and Community in the National Community Reinvestment Coalition

 

 

“In Altar to an Erupting Sun, Collins offers the reader an insider’s view of five decades of social and political movements brought to life with real and complex characters and an exploration of the tools of self-awareness and solidarity that are the basis for an examined life. A compelling work of speculative fiction, imagining how resilience, resistance, and repression will develop in a world of climate change, economic collapse, and polarization.”

—KATHERINE POWER, peace activist, author of a forthcoming memoir, Surrender: A Journey From Guerrilla to Grandmother

 

 

“A book for these turbulent times from an author who dares to explore the bigger questions. Amid so much despair and confusion, Chuck Collins can be relied upon as a prophet of truth who never fails to cut to the core. A voice of vision and integrity, courage and reason, he lights the way with his skillful writing and tireless advocacy. Collins also knows how to tell a good story. In Altar to an Erupting Sun, he brings us on a voyage of adventure, understanding, and discovery like no other.”
 

—RUAIRI MCKIERNAN, author of Irish Times No. 1 Bestseller, Hitching for Hope: A Journey Into the Heart and Soul of Ireland

 

 

“Pressing with passion and energy, Collins takes readers into the heart of the beauty and contradictions of social movements. What does it mean to be an activist when the world is falling apart? And what is the activist’s moral responsibility? These are vital questions that Altar helps us explore.”

–MAY BOVE, Executive Director, 350.org