WHAT:              Fatherless is a relentlessly-paced, faith-based, dystopian thriller from Dr. James Dobson and Kurt Bruner set in the future but torn from today’s headlines. Well-drawn characters in multiple plot lines are slowly drawn into a national conspiracy with thousands of lives in the balance.

WHO:               Dr. James Dobson launches his fiction career after writing more than 80 books—including the groundbreaking Dare to Discipline—and advocating for strong families as a counselor, broadcaster and advisor to U.S. presidents. He is the founder and president of Family Talk, a nonprofit organization that produces his radio program, Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson, and he is the founder and chairman emeritus of Focus on the Family.

Kurt Bruner is a pastor, family consultant to churches and author.

WHEN:              Releasing Jan. 15, 2013, from FaithWords, an imprint of Hachette Book Group

WHY:                Fatherless is a “can’t put it down” novel that at once engages readers and leads them through disturbing trends. Multiple “tipping points” loom in America’s near future as demographic realities take their toll. With birth rates declining, seniors living longer and health care costs rising, a population-economic time bomb is ticking. The erosion of the value of life and families could easily lead to previously unthinkable choices.

SYNOPSIS:        In the page-turning Fatherless, it’s 2042, and a long-predicted tipping point has arrived:  For the first time the elderly outnumber the vigorous young, creating an untenable economic and moral situation. How will a debt-crippled nation pay for the health care needs of a growing number of seniors living longer? As laws change allowing the elderly to end their lives, they become viewed as financial liabilities, as do the disabled. Jaundiced eyes turn toward any couple with more than two children, making the problem worse. Caught in an intensifying battle between competing cultural agendas is reporter Julia Davidson—a journalist seeking to revive a flagging career; influential young Congressman Kevin Tolbert, a Christian facing his own dilemmas; and a supporting cast of engaging characters who find themselves deep in an ominous conspiracy. In the dystopian tradition of 1984, Brave New World and The Hunger Games, Fatherless projects the headlines of today into the desperate choices of tomorrow.

 ADDITIONAL STORY IDEAS:

n  Fatherless: Fact Behind the Fiction—To some, the plot of Fatherless might seem farfetched, until looking at Japan, Russian and Western Europe, where the demographic and economic realities are playing out right now. China’s one-child policy already has led to unprecedented use of abortion both for legal and family planning reasons. Is it outlandish to think similar social engineering could cause changes in how we view when a useful life ends as well as when it begins?

n  A Best-Seller’s First Novel—Dr. James Dobson is known around the world for his family-advocating radio broadcasts and as the author of multiple best-selling books such as Dare to Discipline and The Strong-Willed Child, Bringing Up Boys and Bringing Up Girls. (Fatherless begins a three-book series.)

Visit Lovell-Fairchild.com/pressroom for:

n Fatherless Press Release

n Fatherless Fact Sheet

n Fatherless Bios

n Fatherless Backgrounder

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n Fatherless Endorsements

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