WILMINGTON, NC, January 30, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- 'Water Drumming In The Soul', Eric Madeen's bestselling work of literary fiction based on his travels in Africa, will be available at no charge in ebook form January 31 through February 1 at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Eric-Madeen/author/B08VGRNJVW?.

In 'Water Drumming In The Soul' Eric Madeen, a former Peace Corps volunteer, senior associate professor of literature, empath and Amazon multi-bestselling literary writer, takes a much-needed step back from the AI zeitgeist.

According to Duke University's Literature Department founder, director and professor, the late Fredric Jameson and his seminal book Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, full postmodernism is described therein as when the artificial becomes so prevalent that there's nothing natural to compare it to. Relevant here is Ridley Scott's pathbreaking movie Blade Runner.

While the above serves as contrast, so the following cannot be construed as reductive, Madeen's novel is a crucial step back to Romanticism. It realizes the soul in a love story that is rollicking and vibrant from the beginning. When Peace Corps volunteer David Fields is set to enter an equatorial African village for the first time to begin his project, he gets sidetracked by a stunning African lady water drumming, playing a stream as a drum while singing gloriously. She is from the outset a magnet for David who becomes the hunter captured by the game. And what a riveting game of love it is.

Throughout the novel their love proves to be so rollicking and thrilling that at its heart wrenching ending readers feel the story thrumming in their soul. And with the endings' multiplicity of interpretations, it verifies the truism of what masterful novelist of Lolita fame Vladimir Nabokov said of the finest art, that it is not simple and sincere but rather deceitful and complex.

Like wunderkind best-seller Paul Theroux, Eric Madeen will always think of himself as a Peace Corps volunteer, one who, just after graduating from the University of Arizona, constructed in Francophone Gabon, Africa a primary school complex in an equatorial village surrounded by rainforest … where he got lost for three days while hunting monkeys for the cooking pot … and where notably he fell in love, giving his first novel, 'Water Drumming in the Soul' a vigorous fictional reality.

Readers and reviewers have expressed high praise for 'Water Drumming In The Soul'. Zaheer Baber; Professor of Sociology; University of Toronto, said, "Madeen's storytelling prowess shines through and resonates with authenticity. The characters, particularly Assam, are beautifully developed, challenging traditional stereotypes as in presenting a more nuanced and genuine portrayal of African culture."

One Amazon reviewer said, "Water Drumming in the Soul not only tells a passionate love story, but it also delves into thought-provoking themes like culture, identity, and the power of human connection. It's a rollercoaster of emotions that'll have you laughing, crying, and everything in between. This isn't your typical love story! This novel is well-written and full of unexpected twists that keep you flipping those pages. Plus, the characters are so well-developed that you'll feel like you've known them forever. So, if you're ready for a wild and adventurous ride, grab a copy of this modern-day classic ASAP!"

Elizabeth Montano, author of The Eternal Dawn Trilogy, called it " a novel so beautifully and realistically written I found it on par with works by whom we consider masters … Hemingway definitely comes to mind."

Eric Madeen writes cross-genre, and is the author of several books:

Tokyo-ing! - This is an apt word for this bestselling trio of tales chiming with anyone even slightly interested in Asia's or even the world's most dynamic megalopolis and its glazing of layers – be they cultural or taking-wing exuberant. Madeen does deep dives in three fascinating directions and voices, including the persona in first-person female. Then doesn't let readers come up for air because they don't want to -- until the delicious end.

Asian Trail Mix: True Tales From Borneo to Japan, a bestselling travelogue mixes it up on the Asian Trail in a voice that's by turns personal, passionate and ohhhh so very soulful. "So I get up at dawn and marvel at fog burning off into mist tumbling down like the finest mosquito netting of silk. The hills beyond the rivers' confluence, like shoulders of a woman undressing, the way the misty shroud lifts off feminine curves, higher and higher ... I tingle all over, feeling there on Borneo the dream tug of Joseph Conrad's fiction, notably his early Malaya Quartet therein Lord Jim."

By turns literarily pathbreaking and intimate, this smorgasbord of travel essays scales down the sprawl of Asia by focusing on the unique and revelatory in gemmy prose. See up close and personal the razzmatazz of novice monks at play in northern Laos, the bonding with hustling pedicab drivers in Ho Chi Minh City, the rainforests blazed on gutsy treks across Borneo and Thailand's Elephant Island and novel things Japanese. Served up nice and spicy, Asian Trail Mix is slathered across 12 rocking-it essays plus a tall tale at its glorious ending, making for a baker's dozen of sumptuousness.

Tennis Clubbed, Snubbed and Rubbity-Dub Dubbed - In historically rich Yokohama, where Captain Perry and his Black Ships cracked open Japan, the wicked shiver of the tennis snub in the postmodern present pits David Adams against K: a puffed-up xenophobic tyrant who rules over the courts of a club that has as its anthem, ironically, the promotion of international friendship, modelled on the world's 2nd oldest tennis club on whose board Madeen had the privilege of serving.

'Water Drumming In The Soul: A Novel Of Racy Love in the Heart of Africa' will be available at no charge in e-book format January 31 through February 1 at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Eric-Madeen/author/B08VGRNJVW?.

Eric Madeen is available for media interviews and can be reached at ericsan@gol.com. All of his books are available at Amazon. More information is available at his website at https://ericmadeen.com.

About Eric Madeen:

Eric Madeen is an associate professor of modern literature at Tokyo City University and an adjunct professor at Keio University. He's an award-winning author of six books, and his writing has been published widely -- in Time, Asia Week, The East, Daily Yomiuri, Tokyo Journal, Kyoto Journal, East of the Web, Metropolis, Mississippi Review, ANA's inflight magazine Wingspan, Peace Corps Worldwide, Japanophile, Yomimono, The Pretentious Idea, Tombstone Epitaph, several anthologies, academic journals, therein his seminal essay "Under Western and Eastern Eyes" jointly published by the Ministry of Education of the Western Federation, Russia, and the Joseph Conrad Foundation, USA, and so on.

Madeen has been featured in several radio interviews (12 in the USA and 2 in Japan) and various print media. He once made his living copywriting for then-world's largest ad agency Dentsu for clients as diverse as Mazda, Subaru, Canon, Konica, Nikko Hotels International and Sony.

He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Francophone Gabon, Africa, where he built a primary school complex in an equatorial village surrounded by rainforest, a mind-blowing experience which inspired his first book.

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