Earnest and sensitive John Nelson abandoned his safe desk job with the Forest Service to join a band of radical environmental and media activists in Portland, Oregon. But when he left behind everything he knew to follow his heart, Nelson didn't realize trying to save the world would be so hard.
Against the backdrop of the Bush administration's buildup to the Iraq war, Nelson and his fellow activists Fetzer and Jen investigate war-technologies fraud and corruption at a prominent Portland university. As they close in on the truth, they face escalating danger and Nelson falls in love with a traveling Irish photographer, but she turns out to be an addict who betrays him.
As the streets of Portland erupt with anti-war protestors, the fraud investigation and the wounded relationship spiral towards a tragic climax that forces Nelson to confront everything he believes.
Parts per Million, finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, was written and researched over a decade by debut author Julia Stoops.