The Seeker Academy

Using the tools of literary fiction, The Seeker Academy explores the holistic healing (mind-body-spirit) movement, which has its roots in the beat-hippie counterculture and, earlier, in a romantic movement dating back three centuries. Author L. D. Gussin populates the story with characters struggling with how to live their lives. At local centers and retreats, they engage in wellness and spiritual practices, some which go beyond current Western norms. While middle class, their anxiety in the face of modern culture makes them, or some of them, seekers after purity, almost like religious fundamentalists. Yet, they tend to be social liberals'even when they find the levers of social change to be beyond their reach and so a distraction. With drama, dislocation, hope, and longing, the novel’s characters are striving for connection. With exquisite facility of language, L. D. Gussin takes us on a very real spiritual journey; the ups, the downs, the all arounds. I’ve been there. L. D. Gussin nails it! ‘ Nancy Slonim Aronie (Aronie is an author, NPR commentator, and holistic retreat workshop leader who, with Robert Coles, teaches Literature for Social Reflection at Harvard.)