Lewis K. Schrager is the author of the new novel The Blood of the Land. He also has written the novel The Radical Radiance of the Fishing Fly. He has worked for many years in the global health field, and he lives in North Bethesda, Maryland.
Q: What inspired you to write The Blood of the Land, and how did you create your character Marina?
A: Soon after the 9/11 attacks, I joined the newly created counterterrorism office in the Center for Drugs at the FDA. Part of our responsibility was to design and conduct clinical trials of drugs against potential biowarfare agents, including the bacteria that causes plague.
We partnered with the CDC to conduct a study of the effectiveness of certain drugs in treating plague in Madagascar, as the Malagasy highlands have the world’s highest incidence of plague.
I visited clinic sites during the summer rainy season, as this is the season for plague. I was shocked to see that the water running in the streams and rivers appeared bright red, a result of the deforestation of the Malagasy highlands and subsequent erosion of the island’s iron-rich soil.
Witnessing the ravaged land and the blood red rivers, along with the poverty and political instability of the country, triggered my interest in writing the book.
Marina grew from a photo of a doctor working in one of the most distant, isolated clinics in the study. She seemed withdrawn and distant—unlike many of the other doctors I met. Her character emerged from my imagining the reasons for her forlorn appearance in the context of the ecologically ravaged land and the political upheaval tearing at Malagasy society.
Q: Can you say more about how your experiences as a vaccine developer in Africa inform the novel?
A: My experiences reinforced the importance of understanding and respecting the sociocultural milieu in which studies are conducted. In my novel I attempt to illustrate the complex interaction between Malagasy religious practices and beliefs and how these impact the characters and plot.
For example, before my visit to Madagascar, I was unaware of the famadihana rite and the implications of a death due to plague on the practice of this important religious practice. I also was unaware of the political tensions surrounding this practice coursing through Malagasy society. Both these issues play important roles in the story.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: The overthrow of the Malagasy president, which occurred as I was writing the first draft, prompted me to introduce important revisions that impacted the entire story, including my idea for the ending.
The change in America’s relations with the world, particularly regarding African countries, following the reelection of Donald Trump demanded additional revisions, resulting in the current ending.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: A question that prompted me to write the book was “is sacrifice worth it?” It’s a question that Marina wrestles with. She has suffered from the sacrifice of others—her American lover, her father—and yet, when confronted with the dangerous conditions evolving in Analaroa, she remains steadfast.
Many of the characters, including Steven Frey, also have paid the price of sacrifice, and yet persevere.
I hope the book prompts readers to think more deeply about calls to sacrifice: When they are essential for the greater good? When do they mainly serve the narrower interests of those in power?
I also hope to illustrate that even “essential” sacrifice may be made unnecessary by more careful and compassionate stewardship of the natural world as well as our political systems.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m preparing to edit my third novel (as yet untitled). The book is loosely based upon a father’s horrific murder of his family, including a high school classmate of mine, in the early 1970s. I’m also working on short stories for a new collection.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: My debut novel, The Radical Radiance of the Fishing Fly (September 2025) was an award finalist in both literary fiction and cover design in the 2025 AmericanBookFest.com Best Book Awards. It also was named an award finalist in general fiction (books less than 70,000 words) in the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards competition. The book is available through Amazon or via Bookshop.org.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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