Book excerpt: The Mercury Fountain takes place at the turn of the 20th century in a remote stretch of desert, West Texas. Owen Scraperton, a passionate Yankee, sets out to atone for his misspent youth by starting a utopian paradise in the wilderness. He begins to attract a following within the local population and further afield. Owen founds the economics of this new society upon Mercury mining, lauding its fluidity, beauty and usefulness and disregarding its darker properties. But it isn't long before Owen's utopia begins to unravel...