Alum's Novel Released Posthumously

The search for justice and the race for peace are prevailing issues in the new novel “Naked Escape: The Race for Peace,” written by former Georgetown student Frank Parrella and his daughter Maureen Parrella.

The political thriller follows Ambrose Servent, a fictional Georgetown professor of international relations, as he works to destroy an Antichrist figure’s plans for a worldwide empire.

Maureen Parrella began to combine her father’s manuscripts with narratives from her own experience growing up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., after her father passed away on July 27, 2008. Frank Parrella used his expertise as a foreign intelligence officer in writing the novel and Maureen Parrella said she updated the novel to make it more relevant.

“The story is very relevant for today as it is in today’s setting, concerning the Iraqi war, economic, social, moral and religious concerns that may often be relevant in society,” Maureen Parrella said. “The storyline is unique, as it is almost totally one man’s fight for peace and freedom, and the ending has an unexpected twist.”

The novel is the brainchild of the late Frank Parrella, who completed his Ph.D. in foreign affairs at Georgetown, according to Maureen Parrella. Frank Parella’s master’s degree thesis, “Lebensraum and Manifest Destiny: A Comparative Study in the Justification of Expansion,” was published in 1950.

After his studies, Frank Parrella went on to become a foreign intelligence officer with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Frank Parrella’s experiences in and around Georgetown can be seen through the eyes of Servent, Maureen Parrella said, and Servent tells his grandfather’s World War II stories throughout the novel.

“It was his wish and my wish to become a published author and share his views nationally. Unfortunately his wish did not come true until he passed on from this life into the next,” Maureen Parrella said. “My dad spoke fondly and warmly about his academic experiences at Georgetown, and he was not only an honor student, but an honorable man.”

The novel was published by iUniverse on July 30. It is available through iUniverse, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.