This Footstool Earth About the Author Beyond the four volumes of The Japan Quartet (Under Hiroshima, 2013; The Game in the Past, 2017; Soldier for Christ, 2014; This Footstool Earth, 2018), John Zeugner has written a satiric chess thriller, Manila Gambit, 2016; a collection of three short novels, Food for Jackals, 2015; and a collection of short stories, Life-Arc Teaching Tales, 2015.