Selected as a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year," DUCK AND COVER is a "wicked black comedy" of a family who fights their wars "on the home front." As one of the MacKenzie children says, "The way nuclear families are put together, it just makes sense they would explode." In this "bittersweet and utterly beguiling novel," (Publisher's Weekly) each of the MacKenzie family tells their stories in nine, wildly opposed points of view. Starting at a family reunion, three generations of the MacKenzies face off against each other. They discover that terrorism is as intimate as one’s own family. “My family has practiced the end of the world more than most,” begins this novel. From the CIA mother to the diplomat father, the fighter jet brother to the trauma nurse and psychologist sisters; from political to heated religious battles; from hurricanes to love affairs to End Times raptures -- the high-voltage MacKenzies are always breaking up and coming back together again. Like all families.The Los Angeles Times praises Peterson as “a hauntingly funny writer . . . the balance she strikes is almost hypnotic.”Always in motion, meeting one another clandestinely and cross-country, the MacKenzies mirror the growing up of generations raised to duck and cover – against both a nuclear age and family. An eerily prescient novel, DUCK AND COVER is a timeless story of family bonds and discovering that “our only civil defense is ourselves.”“Peterson would seem to hold out just about as much hope for the family as she does the planet,” concludes The New York Times.“The eccentric MacKenzies are a triumph of warmth, problems, complexity, and their concerns are so truly of our time . . . delightful and absorbing.”’ ~ Diane Johnson, author Le Divorce"Instead of staring down the elusive past, Brenda Peterson's new novel, Duck and Cover, turns a cautious eye to the future. Peterson is an aggressively quirky writer, but through the consistent charm of her imagery . . . to the surprising depth of emotion she packs into the mini-reunions and small concessions that allow at least a few MacKenzies to forgive each other, she avoids the flippancy with which so many novels have dealt with the question of how to life in the nuclear age." ~ Seattle Times"Peterson's talent for characterization shines brilliantly." -- BookListFrom the highly acclaimed author of I Want To Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth, which The Christian Science Monitor named as a “Best Top Ten Non-Fiction Book of the Year.” For more on this author and her many other books: www.IWantToBeLeftBehind.comwww.literati.net/Peterson