“A powerful, intense little package of dynamite”

A gripping new novel has just been released by Ignatius Press: Iota by T.M. Doran, which the author calls his most ambitious and demanding novel yet. A taut and tense 165 pages long, Iota centers on a journalist, Jan Skala, who has been arrested and imprisoned by the Russian liberators of Prague

During the Nazi occupation of the city, the journalist stayed above ground and continued to work for his father’s newspaper, which had been commandeered by the Gestapo. What must the Russians think of Jan? But more importantly, what is Jan’s take on his wartime role?

Iota is a drama about what men believe and whether their actions are consistent with what they profess. The story, which takes place during a two-month period immediately following World War II, in a temporary Soviet detention facility—a former abattoir—near a devastated Berlin, is an exploration of what it means to be human and whether it is possible to retain one’s humanity in the face of radical evil. 

Eerily mirroring the present day European crisis is the 1945 Soviet Union’s desire to gobble up as much of Europe as it can.


The intriguing characters sharing his detention facility all have a backstory, but Jan cannot be sure if any of them is telling the truth. Although the business of daily survival begins to trump every other concern, the men nevertheless struggle to understand their fate. Ruling the facility is the menacing Russian major, who is as opaque as any of the prisoners.


Author T.M. Doran says, “History by William L. Shirer, Martin Gilbert, and Igor Lukes; essays, poems, and memoirs by Liu Xiaobo, T.S. Eliot, and Walter Ciszek; literature by Pasternak, Dumas, and Orwell influenced Iota, a story about radical forgiveness, though we have to dig deep into the grit and brutality to find it.”


Michael D. O’Brien, author of Fr. Elijah: An Apocalypse, says, “Iota is a plunge into the darkest waters of human motivation and character. Set in a political prison at the end of World War II, the story of the ‘cage’ is also a metaphor for the imprisonment of minds and souls….”


Iota is “a gripping read. The atmosphere of tension, squalor and fear is brilliantly sustained and the plot has thrilling twists right to the end,” claims Lucy Beckett author of A Postcard from the Volcano.


“This compelling story reads like an eyewitness account. At times moving, harrowing and genuinely terrifying, Doran’s Iota asks unsettling questions about the nature of innocence, guilt, courage and complicity. I simply could not put it down,” says Fiorella De Maria author of Do No Harm.

James V. Schall, S. J., author of Reasonable Pleasures, says, “The urge to track down and bring to justice is a powerful one. We see it at work here in Iota. In the end, we learn what we ought to do by not doing what we set out to do.”

About the Author:

T. M. Doran is an environmental engineer and an adjunct professor at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan. He is the author of two other novels, Terrapin (Ignatius Press, 2012) and Toward the Gleam (Ignatius Press, 2011), and a guest contributor to the Detroit Free Press and the Catholic World Report blog.

Author T.M. Doran is available for interviews about this book. To request a review copy or an interview with T.M. Doran, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239)867-4180 or rose@ignatius.com

Product Facts:

Title: IOTA: A Novel
Author: T.M. Doran
Release Date: October 2014
Length: 165 pages
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-1-58617-854-3 • Hardcover

Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com