Orcas Island is featured in new young adult novel by Seattle-based writer Jeffrey David Payne called “Far From The War.”

The novel tells the story of a girl from Orcas Island serving as a page in the United States House of Representatives when rogue politicians and military leaders stage a modern day coup d’état. When the coup turns violent, she abandons Washington, D.C. for home. She learns to survive on her own as transportation and financial networks fail when the war disrupts food and water supplies.

“The result is a cautionary tale about political extremism and the true cost of war,” said a spokesman for the book’s publisher, Roche Harbor Books. “’Far From The War’ kicks off a trilogy of novels about modern day civil war, a theme that grows more resonant every day as pundits and political leaders begin to talk openly of widespread civil unrest and the possibility of new political violence in America. Despite the broad scope and dark narrative, the story is ultimately about how love and family serve as a refuge when nations and economies crumble.”

While the novel is set against the backdrop of civil war, Payne says he set out to write a novel about the effect of politics on ordinary people, not a war novel.

“I didn’t originally set out to write a book about civil war,” Payne said. “I wanted to write about a family on Orcas Island gradually losing contact with the mainland. After considering several different scenarios I settled on a new civil war as the most compelling way to explain that loss of contact. Even so, I was still worried about whether or not readers would believe it – the idea of a new civil war was just unthinkable back then. But since then we’ve had politicians and pundits actually start talking about some kind of armed revolt, radicals on both sides of the political spectrum gaining ground. It’s not a crazy idea anymore and that’s why I thought it was especially important to show readers, in as vivid a way possible, what civil war would mean to real people. So in the end, it’s not about the war or who should win the war, it’s about how the failure to peacefully resolve political disputes ruins some poor girl’s life.”