“Nothing To Declare is truly wonderful. The searing romantic/political/artistic triangle at its center exquisitely evokes the strange and wonderful Santa Cruz garden of my youth. I loved it.”

David Talbot, author of the New York Times bestsellers, “Brothers,” and “The Devil’s Chessboard,” and the national bestseller “Season of the Witch.”

“Nothing to Declare is a rewarding novel that evokes and illuminates the grime and glory of the 1970s” –

Foreword Reviews

“Ravin’s novel dives into the heart of the complicated relationships that formed in West Coast counterculture communities in the ’70s and excels at showing both the wonders and the impermanence of them.”

Kirkus Reviews

“I’ve been a fan of Richard Ravin’s work for many years. Nothing to Declare is a masterfully written and intimate examination of friendship and loss; it’s about how memory not only recreates but fools us yet again into believing what happened actually happened. And maybe it did? A beautiful and scary thing and who would have it any other way? Ravin knows all the sacred secrets of his characters. Here’s a tiny sample of what a reader’s in for: “There was a van of surfer dudes from Malibu who stopped for me on PCH. I crashed at their party shack on Zuma Beach in the shadow of the cliffs where Charlton Heston barebacked his horse in Planet of the Apes. They were growing sinsemilla in their closet, and I helped them sex the plants. The money’s in the female buds. The rest is trash…” You see what I mean? Meet Jesse and Marty. You’re in for a wild ride.”

Peter Orner, author of Maggie Brown and Others, and Love and Shame and Love

“Richard Ravin offers up an astonishing journey in Nothing to Declare, through time and across a variety of landscapes, both external and internal. All of Ravin’s delicious characters rise fully formed from the page. They’re so human;  you feel as though you’re with them, rather than reading about them. The writing itself is beautiful, with page after page of surefooted prose. There’s just much to love about this book— it’s rare to find one that makes you laugh, cry, and see the world differently all in the same chapter.  But Nothing to  Declare does that, and more.”

Cynthia Anderson, author of River Talk and Home Now: How 6000 Refugees Transformed an American Town

“It’s hard to believe Nothing to Declare is a debut novel. The writing is precise, the pacing solid. Richard Ravin has a poet’s ear for language and a former Hollywood producer’s grasp of plot and character. The book is a generational reckoning. Its main characters, Jesse, an art student, and Marty, his wild-man mentor, flee the confines of working class Boston for the freewheeling counterculture of 1970s California. There they meet Isabel, a native Californian whose dark side attracts them both. The story mixes all kinds of fun: merengue dancing, drunken road trips, sexual politics, protest marches, The Who. But heartbreak and betrayal are soon to follow. Nothing to Declare is about the joys and perils of making it up as you go along. It’s a smart and totally engrossing read.”

Louie Cronin, author of Everybody Loves You Back