The Soft Exile

<p>With the publication of his debut novel The Soft Exile writer/musician Eric Kiefer ended a five-year 12000 mile exodus.</p><p>Word for word it's not exactly what happened to me out there Kiefer said of The Soft Exile. But it's about as close as you can get without becoming a confession. It's a novel for the expatriates within us all.</p><p>The fictional memoir draws heavily from his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Gobi Desert region of Mongolia. During this time Kiefer gathered the raw material and life experiences that would later become The Soft Exile.</p><p>The book chronicles an idealistic young American's decision to join the Peace Corps after an aborted suicide attempt. He spends two years as a volunteer in the fabled lands of the Mongolian desert-steppe searching for redemption and an alternative to modern American life. Along the way he teaches English in a public school constructs a low-powered radio station and tries his best to assimilate to his new world all the while lusting for an answer to a question that will either doom or save everything: What is a good deed worth?</p>