Kit Lamb, as a troubled teenager, has been drawn into a Charismatic Christian church, where he feels "saved" not only by his new religion but by his fatherly pastor, Ezra. Now, at twenty-one, he travels to Guatemala to learn Spanish and fit himself for life as a missionary. In 1983, Guatemala is ruled by born-again, bible-believing dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt, a real historical figure admired by Ronald Reagan and many U.S. evangelicals but condemned by human rights organizations as a genocidal tyrant. Kit meets and is drawn to Colleen-the first link in his de-conversion. Critical of his religious beliefs, which include support for the regime, Colleen reluctantly helps Kit exchange his dollars and find his way to his school in Antigua. Kit begins to notice that the government's treatment of the impoverished Indians is not as benign as it is purported to be. Hearing one of Ríos Montt's famous Sunday sermons, in which the dictator vows to crush the opposition insurgency, branding it as communist and satanic, Kit finds Ríos Montt ruthless and intimidating. The cynical insinuations of a CIA operative at his school and the mysterious mission that Colleen seems to be pursuing lead Kit to the Pacific Coast where he falls victim to "la violencia" perpetrated by Ríos Montt's theocratic dictatorship. In the end, Kit must decide whether to hold on to the comfort of his fundamentalism or accept the truth of his own experience.
About the Author: In addition to The De-Conversion of Kit Lamb, Kasten is the author of two novels: Ten Small Beds and Better Days. She has also published a book of fairy tales for adults: Wildwood: Fairy Tales and Fables Re-imagined. Her short fiction has been published in Glimmer Train, American Literary Review, Northwest Review, and fiction anthologies. Her story, "True Feelings," was awarded the American Literary Review's short fiction prize. Another story, "The Teaching Test," won first place and publication in Somersault Press's Sideshow anthology. Her short fiction collection, The Teaching Test, was a finalist in the Helicon Nine Editions Willa Cather Fiction Contest, and her short story, "Home Fires," before publication in Glimmer Train, was a publisher's finalist for the Heekin Group Foundation Tara Fellowship for Short Fiction. She has published poetry in 100 words, a journal of the University of Iowa International Writing Program, and co-wrote a musical satire of the Nancy Drew mystery genre, The Clue in the Old Birdbath, which has been produced by theatre companies in Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland.