THE CLOUD AND THE FIRE is a revolutionary work. Political, social, timely, and most importantly…human. Set during the Civil War in California the book features an actual conspiracy where a clandestine group known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, who were the forerunners of the Ku Klux Klan, attempted to turn California into an apartheid state, separate from the Union. California, at the time, was wealthier than the Union and a place of unrivalled possibility and unmatched hatreds.
What makes the book particularly revolutionary are the characters. The outcasts of society who are the core of this heroic quest. A woman who is unloved and lame, a man who is half black but can pass for white, a reporter who is gay. They are the insurrection who will stand against racism and corruption. The love story in these pages is heartbreakingly real. Teran writes with the heart of Hemingway, but the mind of a Zola or Camus. No one has done this kind of book, this kind of way.