It’s 2025, and America teeters on the brink of fascism. Natalie Morrow watches in alarm as her son Augie and daughter-in-law Nicole turn a blind eye to the encroaching signs of tyranny, clinging to a dangerous hope that things will somehow improve. Natalie can’t do this; she refuses to gamble with the safety of her grandchildren. Instead, she makes an unfathomable decision: to flee to Canada and take Liam and Charli with her. Embarking on this fraught mission, she’s fully aware of its ramifications but determined to shield her cherished grandtwins from the fate she believes awaits them in a country she still loves but no longer recognizes. Meanwhile, her other son, Finn, has been MIA for months. A podcaster, he’s gone deep undercover to infiltrate a compound of radical white nationalists, risking everything to expose their violent agenda. As mother and sons’ paths converge and the stakes escalate, Allegiance becomes a pulse-pounding tale of resistance, sacrifice, and the enduring power of family. Will Natalie and her grandchildren find sanctuary beyond America’s borders, away from the new regime, or will the fight for survival lead them deeper into the heart of the ongoing storm? And who, in the end, merits our ultimate loyalty? "With empathy and precision, Erika Raskin gives us an America that we can recognize — and work to prevent." -- Timothy Snyder , author of On Tyranny and the Levin Professor of History, Yale University "In this chilling, tense, ripped-from-the-headlines thriller, Erika Raskin portrays the lives of two individuals, a grandmother racing to protect her family and a podcaster going undercover to expose the terrifying threat. Emotionally engaging and masterfully paced, this alarming story feels all too real." -- Steve Weddle , author of The County Line "A captivating and chilling read. Erika Raskin exposes what we should already know, cults masquerading as religions are ubiquitous, democracies can collapse with cult like leaders." -- Congresswoman Jackie Speier (Ret.) , survivor of the Jonestown massacre "A fascist tyrant unleashes hatred and violence across the country. Neighbor turns on neighbor; families split into armed camps. In her chilling novel, Erika Raskin conjures an America careening toward chaos. Read it... and shudder." -- Melissa Block , longtime NPR correspondent and host "Erika Raskin's Allegiance is a chilling novelistic rendering of the How It Started/ How It's Going decline of American democracy. The gripping story of a young journalist who embeds himself with a violent hate group and his mother, who must take action as the frogs in pots begin to be her own, will haunt you; like jumping a bike over a flaming stack of headlines from the past decade. Allegiance is too on-the-nose to be dystopian fiction, and many of its most ugly plot twists and turns have already happened." -- Dahlia Lithwick , Senior legal correspondent for Slate and New York Times bestselling author of Lady Justice "Grandmothers are at the center of precious few American political novels, that alone is a reason to recommend this rarity... Agree or don't agree with her politics, you will be amused by Raskin's prose, and you will think." -- Alice Randall , author of Rebel Yell. Fascism does not succeed on its own. People buy in or they go along to get along. And then the next gen is  born in .    Allegiance  arose naturally from the warning signs that have been metastasizing for nearly a decade.  Granted, I've been attuned to mass hysteria for a long time -- I wrote my college senior thesis on the slaughter at Jonestown. I was blown away by how so many people in search of Something Better, could fall victim to deranged evil--some going on to commit it themselves. Using Hannah Arendt's  The Origins of Totalitarianism  I tried to make sense of the senseless and saw parallels in the rise of Hitler and that of the murderous Jim Jones. Once dictators gain a foothold by preaching a higher purpose they employ terror, suspicion and debasement to keep people in and  over   the line, constantly upping the ante for proof of devotion and obedience. (The psychology of 'in for a penny' is no joke.)  My hope is that  Allegiance,  with its relateable characters (including three funny little kids), will get people to think --and then act.