Indra's Net is an adventure novel with a metaphysical twist. Readers who love action and philosophy, history and imagination, mystery and revelation will find this book a unique and provocative blend. Indra's Net has rave reviews from secular and religious figures including among the latter Rabbi David Cooper (author of God Is a Verb), Father Joe Maier (Director of the Mercy Center, Bangkok), Reverend John Peterson (Pastor, Covenant Presbyterian Church, U.S.) and Murshid Asha Greer (Sufi/Moslem Spiritual Guide). The novel is set in Thailand in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War. Here is a synopsis of the story... Eager and disoriented, James Carpenter arrives in Bangkok at 19 to the country where he was born and adopted as an infant. At landing, he awakens from a recurring nightmare that reflects his understandable anxiety and portends a startling future. In it, he is sacrificed by his own father as an offering to a primitive god. The dream has more the feel of memory than fantasy. It is the first of several that bridge the apparent gap between past events and current action. Carpenter's first day in this foreign but oddly familiar land is filled with encounters that challenge his dearest values and beliefs about himself. He is at the beginning of a year-long internship with his uncle, a Catholic priest, the man who found him as an infant in a remote part of the infamous Golden Triangle. Heading north to rendezvous with the Father, Carpenter meets Amit Kohein - an Iraqi Jew with a gem business in Bangkok. Kohein possesses an old journal that offers clues to what may be a fortune in jewels. The journal refers to what ancient Buddhist teachings call 'Indra's Jeweled Net' - a symbol of the interconnectedness of all things. The journal's 'treasure' may be tangible, metaphorical, or both. Kohein is seeking that treasure, whatever it may be. He is pursued, however, by Phi Rak or 'Brother Love', a trafficker in children and other profitable enterprises. When Carpenter discovers that his uncle has disappeared in an area close to the spot where the Jeweled Net may be, he and others join Kohein's expedition hoping to find the missing Father and whatever treasure the search may uncover. Indra's Net follows Carpenter's journey north through the Golden Triangle and into a remote region of Burma in search of the Father, while others pursue their dreams of incalculable treasure. The search ends at a warren of hidden caves where each character must face the conflicts that have brought them all together. Here, Carpenter learns the story of his own origins and discovers his true identity. Indra's Net begins as a contemporary coming of age story that ultimately spans ages. Occasional short dream chapters link history and karma, adding depth to characters' relationships. In these visions, we see Carpenter's forbears flee the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem carrying two relics from the desecrated temple there. Over the course of centuries, this back-story migration moves east and toward the present from ancient Persia through India, Tibet and China, creating a spiritual evolution that mirrors Carpenter's own personal quest. The temple relics - a gem and a scrap of parchment from a torah scroll - are handed down to successive generations. Together, they come to hold the accrued meaning of this vast passage and emerge as keys to a dramatic existential truth. Past and present come together at last in caves sculpted from naked stone and crisscrossed by veins of precious crystal. There, where a lost tribe of wanderers has carved for itself a beautiful but entombing sepulcher, historical dynamics between characters and ideas bring all together as the secret of Indra's Net is revealed.
About the Author: Brad Bryant spent a year in 1968-69 teaching and living with a Thai family in Northeast Thailand as a fellow of Yale University's Five Year B.A. Program. After graduating magna cum laude in Southeast Asia Studies, he returned to Thailand in 1972 to teach at an international school in Bangkok and to head the Pearl S. Buck Foundation's work with the children of American soldiers. All told, he spent 6 years in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era, traveling extensively throughout the region and learning Thai, Lao and a bit of Mandarin. He has spent more than 30 years in the child welfare field and has published extensively in the area of foster care and adoption for children with histories of trauma and abuse.