"I got completely and gratefully lost in its rich setting and memorable characters. You will, too." —Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Somebody’s Fool

Equal parts mystery and epic novel inspired by historical events, Foreign Seed plunges readers into the search for a man who seems to vanish out of thin air.

China, June 1918.

When the explorer Frank Meyer suddenly disappears from a ferry on the Yangtze River, American Vice-Consul Samuel Sokobin is tasked with finding the missing man. By the time Sokobin receives the case, four days have passed since Meyer was last seen on the vast river. With no clues to guide his search and fearing failure in his new post as a man of rank, Sokobin heads upriver with Mr. Lin, a Chinese interpreter he’s never met. The investigation soon turns deeply personal for Sokobin, who can’t help but conflate Meyer’s fate with that of his own daring younger brother—a fighter pilot gone MIA in the world war. As Sokobin continues to search for answers, this mental connection threatens to break him, and he’s forced to contend with the biggest question of all: what do we do when the answers we most desperately seek are the very ones that elude us?

A sweeping tale of loss and grief, Foreign Seed is a moving testament to friendship, faith, and the resilience of the human spirit. Allison Alsup’s exquisitely-researched debut novel will stay in readers’ hearts and minds long after they’ve turned the last page.

"Foreign Seed, with its subtle, subterranean Heart of Darkness rumblings, is one of the most satisfying novels I’ve read in a long time. I got completely and gratefully lost in its rich setting and memorable characters. You will, too." —Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Somebody’s Fool

"In a narrative that relies less on the facts of the historical events that inspired the author than it does on the perennial human quest to stay longest with our most unanswerable questions, Allison Alsup creates the story of one man's reckoning with history and himself. Alsup's Sokobin embarks on a sojourn that is rooted in his physical movement up the Yangtze River, though it is the way that journey forces him to traverse his own psyche that takes over. A read that will deliver a satisfying resolution for fans of fast-paced historical fiction." —Ru Freeman, author of Bon Courage: Essays on Inheritance, Citizenship, and a Creative Life