Jordan O'Donnell

Jordan O’Donnell is a novelist, entrepreneur, and former-FBI employee. He lives in Richmond, VA with his wife Rachael and 6-week-old son, Julien.  

His debut novel Zoon Garden: The Decline of a Nation, a social critique of polarized 21st century America, is available on Amazon. You can find it here. 

His economic theory Citizenism: The People’s Economy of the Future is a political economic framework intended to provide an alternative to pure capitalism and socialism, by giving each individual direct say in the distribution of public wealth. He is currently working to publish this work and is interested in connecting with others who share an interest in altering how our current political economic systems function.  

Jordan’s other projects include: Till the Sun Breaks Down, his first opus about a billionaire inventor who creates the cure for death and must introduce into an unraveling society. Calabash, a board game where players compete as opposing political factions to gain money, acquire assets, and take control of Parliament.

Jordan genuinely enjoys connecting with people. Reach out via the contact section. Below you can find some of Jordan's works, favorite quotes, and principles that guide his life. 

 
Zoon Garden

The Decline of a Nation

Jordan O'Donnell’s timely allegory and poignant social critique tells the story of Clarendon Zoo and the dogmatic wolf and sheep tribes that trigger its downfall.


When the mysterious zookeeper of Clarendon Zoo grants his animals freedom to govern themselves, the creatures create a new land founded upon life, liberty, and happiness for all animals. Though the land seems to function well, each species soon realizes they have differing visions for how the land should be governed. With the help of Eagle and Owl's propaganda, the traditional wolves and the progressive sheep quickly emerge as leaders. The two species fight to spread their contradictory visions, pitting the animals against one another, and inadvertently throw the zoo into chaos. Screeching pigeons flood the sky as animals make their opinions known, fact becomes fiction, fiction becomes fact, truth becomes impossible to discern. 


Timely, convicting, wickedly creative, Zoon Garden is the warning our fiercely divided nation needs to hear. It will leave you asking: What is the truth? Who is to blame? What is the world's future?

  • “At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men’s sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that once for all, you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things and there is nothing else like it.”

    – Fyodor Dostoevsky

  • “Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”

    – Franz Kafka

  • “Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.”

    Jean-Paul Sartre

  • “When a soldier was injured and could not get back to safety, his buddy went out to get him, against his officer’s orders. He returned mortally wounded and his friend, whom he had carried back, was dead. The officer was angry. “I told you not to go,” he said. “Now I’ve lost both of you. It was not worth it.” The dying man replied, “But it was, sir, because when I got to him he said, ‘Jim, I knew you’d come.’”

    – Leslie D. Weatherhead

  • “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”

    – Ernest Hemingway

  • “A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is a bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”

    – Jack London