At 5:00 p.m. on September 11, 2001, an ashen-faced but composed President Al Gore stepped into the East Room of the White House to deliver a televised address to the nation. With him were former presidents Clinton and Bush, as well as Texas governor George W. Bush-flown to Washington from Dallas on a military jet, his first visit back to the capital after the close race that lost him the presidency just months before.
That's not how you remember it?
This is the provocative alternate universe of 43*: When Gore Beat Bush-A Political Fable, a riveting new thriller by veteran political commentator Jeff Greenfield, published as an e-book today by Byliner. Richly reported and anchored in actual events, 43* is the fascinating follow-up to Greenfield's bestselling Then Everything Changed, which imagined what-if scenarios for the Kennedy, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations.
"For me," Greenfield says, "there was only one other 'what-if' that fit my standards: it had to be plausible; it had to involve one very small twist of fate that led to huge consequences; and it had to be recent enough so that I could interview participants and observers to provide a compelling, believable narrative. Oh, yes-and it had to be a what-if readers would care about. And that pointed to one story: what if Al Gore had beaten George W. Bush in 2000?"
Greenfield takes readers deep inside the Gore administration and reveals high-level meetings, top-secret programs, and ego-fuel
Ed Battles that forever altered the global landscape. And in Greenfield's hauntingly plausible parallel universe, the law of unintended consequences has a dramatic effect on the fate of the United States.
"It's the 'butterfly effect,' " writes Greenfield, "where one dead butterfly millions of years ago leads to a contemporary world immeasurably more coarse, less kind. It's the notion of the old nursery rhyme: 'For want of a nail the kingdom was lost.' "
About the Author: One of America's most respected political analysts, Jeff Greenfield has spent more than thirty years in network television, including as a commentator on CNN, ABC News, and CBS and currently as an anchor on PBS's Need to Know. A five-time Emmy Award winner, he is a political columnist for Yahoo! News and the author of more than a dozen books, including the bestseller Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reagan. He divides his time between New York and Santa Barbara.
About Byliner: Byliner commissions and publishes original stories written to be read in a single sitting. Bestselling Byliner titles include
Amy Tan's Rules for Virgins, Margaret Atwood's Positron, Jon Krakauer's Three Cups of Deceit, Ann Patchett's The Getaway Car,
Nick Hornby's Everyone's Reading Bastard, and Buzz Bissinger's After Friday Night Lights. The companion website, Byliner.com, gives readers personalized access to an unmatched library of fiction and nonfiction, handpicked by our editors. On Byliner, readers can discover new writers, explore, save, and share great stories, connect with other readers, and even engage directly with their favorite writers.
43*: When Gore Beat Bush-A Political Fable is available for $1.99 as a Kindle Single at Amazon, a Quick Read at Apple's iBookstore, a Nook Snap at BN.com, a Short Read at Kobo, and at Google Play.
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