The back cover of Lois Requist’s book “Where Lilacs Bloom.” (Courtesy photo)

A lot can change in 17 years, but some things do not and even manage to become more noticeable. Friends of Benicia author Lois Requist noticed a lot of aspects of the current political climate that were similar to what was depicted in her 2000 political novel “Where Lilacs Bloom” which inspired her to publish a new edition of her 17-year-old novel. Requist will be signing copies of her second edition this Sunday at Bookshop Benicia.

“Several of my friends who had read the first edition thought it was prescient in that I kind of predicted this would happen,” she said.

Requist has served several roles in Benicia, namely as a former poet laureate and as the one-time president of Benicia Literary Arts. However, in 2000, Requist was new to Benicia, having relocated from Moraga where she had been a columnist for the Contra Costa Sun. Before she moved, she began working on her first novel “Where Lilacs Bloom.”

The book is set in a presidential election year where certain Republican religious extremists splinter off from the GOP and form their own political affiliation: the GOD Party, who attempt to suppress speech they disagree with. In the midst of it all, a writer named Amy Flintridge is imprisoned without a trial for speaking out against the government and is forbidden from making outside contact, but her family starts a protest movement that has a major impact. Flintridge also keeps herself sane by diving into her own mind.

The title is a reference to a plot point where Flintridge’s family holds up a bunch of lilacs and signs bearing a single word, which triggers a new political movement.

Requist began working on the novel in the late ‘90s, and it turned out to be published in a presidential election year.

Requist says the story is about “government intrusion into privacy rights and freedom of speech as well as what would happen if the government detained people without due process of law.”

“Those were the main things that were on my mind when I wrote it,” she said.

Requist noted that the issues would come up again over the years, particularly in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the passage of the Patriot Act, which happened only one year after the book was published. She also said that subsequent administrations had taken on similar actions to those depicted in the book.

“People that had read it before thought that it could be good to publish it again,” she said.

Apart from an updated description on the back cover, Requist said that little had changed largely because the themes are timely for any era.

“It’s not about anything current except that these things can happen with various administrations,” she said.

Requist will be signing copies of “Where Lilacs Bloom” and having an informal conversation with patrons by answering any questions they have about the book. She hopes the book will encourage people to be vigilant when it comes to government affairs.

“We always have to be watching our government, particularly now when there are so many ways and so many sources of information,” she said. “We just have to pay attention to what is said to us and what other people say.”

“We have to be informed and active citizens,” she added.

The signing will take place at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8 at Bookshop Benicia, located at 636 First St. For more information, call the store at 747-5155.

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