In Tallien, a novel that shuttles gracefully between past and present, a
young man visits his dying father - formerly a Depression-era union
organizer and activist - after a 30-year estrangement. At his bedside,
the son relates the tale of Jean Lambert Tallien, a key figure in the
French Revolution, who is torn between his egalitarian ideals and his
love for an aristocratic woman. In skillful prose, acclaimed author
Frederic Tuten uses the historical and contemporary narratives to
explore the tensions between passions of the heart and of the mind.