While visiting the Piikani reservation in Alberta Canada, Shanon Harwood and her fiance asked Chief Elder Shaman Joe Crowshoe to marry them. Crowshoe made them a bargain: he’d marry them if they study shamanism and take the teachings out into the world.
Now Harwood, an experienced shaman, has just debuted her novel, “Currency,” in part to fulfill her bargain with Chief Crowshoe. “Currency” features a young single mom named Deirdre, who receives a mysterious message one day. As she and her townsfolk piece it together, the message reveals how people can live in a remarkable new social order, without using money.
Although the book is fiction, the new social order is taken from ancient shamanic teachings, known to Harwood and revealed in the book.
“Currency” is striking not only for its story but for the way in which some characters, such as Deirdre’s twin brother and her best friend, enjoy the power, money, and position they have, and violently reject the new order. Harwood notes that the book’s explosive teachings polarize both the characters and readers, including, at times, Harwood herself.
Currency is a speculative fiction novel that tackles the most controversial of issues and pushes even the most contentious of buttons. It’s a fast-paced expose of the value system that is driving our world.
Deidre Hanson loved her life. She loved being a single mom and she loved her small dress shop in their quaint little Ohio town.
But that was before The Book.
It was The Book that forced Deidre, and everyone she knew, to examine their values and be prepared to defend them because The Book offered a new plan; a bold, unapologetic plan called The Network. And The Network was about to change their lives.
While some people raced passionately toward the promise of a better future, others clung tenaciously to the present and the perceived stability it represented. It is within this dichotomy that Deidre finds herself in opposition to many of the people in her life, including her own twin brother, Danny, and her best friend, Kate. Deeply dedicated to the cause, Deidre is ultimately forced to evaluate the cost of that dedication. Will she decide the price she paid was too high, or will she risk everything all over again?
Currency is a powerful story whose characters demand the reader ask, “What if?”
What if The Network can put an end to poverty, overpopulation and hunger? What if all cultures could be celebrated equally? What if The Network does save our struggling planet? What if money and power are no longer the international currency of exchange?
Currency is a novel so germane to our times that it will leave you asking, “What would I be willing to exchange for all of that?”
For more about Harwood see: http://currencythebook.com
