Larry Nocella

Based in the fictional South American nation of Palagua, the novel Where Did This Come From? follows the Huapi tribe’s desperate struggle for survival. When American tourist Joe Vera saves the life of the Huapi chief, he is rewarded with a rare and beautiful crystal unknown to the outside world.

Back in America, Joe gives the crystal as a gift to the terminally-ill son of his ex-girlfriend, but it isn't long before the crystal attracts the interest of a leading U.S. toy manufacturer, MajorCo Toys. In an instant, Joe is rich and the crystal is selling like crazy. MajorCo stock is skyrocketing, just before the Christmas shopping season.

The news from Palagua is much more grim. Mining operations are tearing apart the Huapi land. Civil war erupts as factions battle for control of the huge wealth suddenly found in this once-poor nation.

The Huapi find themselves and the jungle that supports them on the brink of annihilation. Joe struggles to stem the forces of desire he has unleashed. How do you fight want? How do you fight greed?

Can Joe and the Huapi hope to resist the apathetic hunger of consumers who never bother to ask, Where Did This Come From?

Where Did This Come From? is the WORLD'S FIRST CarbonFree(R) novel according to Carbonfund.org! For every paperback copy of Where Did This Come From? sold, author Larry Nocella will donate a portion of his profit to offset the environmental impact of producing and shipping the book.

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Written by Larry Nocella, the former editor-publisher of the award-winning magazine "Question Everything Challenge Everything", Where Did This Come From? is a novel embodying today's modern consumer dilemmas.

Though the precise events in Where Did This Come From? are fictional, its overall message is all too real and directly relevant in today's market flooded with goods made by child labor, produced with ecologically destructive practices, or even used to directly finance murder and terror (such as "blood diamonds"). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Midwest Book Review April 2007