She calls herself Ash, but that's not her real name. She is a farmer's faithful wife, but she has left her husband to don the uniform of a Union soldier in the Civil War. NEVERHOME tells the harrowing story of Ash Thompson during the battle for the South. Through bloodshed and hysteria and heartbreak, she becomes a hero, a folk legend, a madwoman and a traitor to the American cause.Laird Hunt's dazzling new novel throws a spright on the adventurous women who chose to fight instead of stay behind. It is also a mystery story: why did Ash leave and her husband stay? Why can she not return? What will she have to go through to make it back home? In gorgeous prose, Hunt's rebellious young heroine fights her way through history, and back home to her husband, and finally into our hearts. Views: 41
Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has drawn on Zionism, the movement behind its creation, to provide a sense of self and political direction. In this groundbreaking new work, Ilan Pappe looks at the continued role of Zionist ideology. The Idea of Israel considers the way Zionism operates outside of the government and military in areas such as the country's education system, media, and cinema, and the uses that are made of the Holocaust in supporting the state's ideological structure.In particular, Pappe examines the way successive generations of historians have framed the 1948 conflict as a liberation campaign, creating a foundation myth that went unquestioned in Israeli society until the 1990s. Pappe himself was part of the post-Zionist movement that arose then. He was attacked and received death threats as he exposed the truth about how Palestinians have been treated and the gruesome structure that links the production of knowledge to the exercise of... Views: 41
Molly Brooks has faced every foe thrown at her: power-hungry gods, hateful spirits, plotting demons, and everything in between. She has been betrayed. Lied to. Tortured. Possessed. And she has fought her way back from the brink, time and time again. It all leads up to this. Two Titans, formerly imprisoned by Molly's family, now walk the mortal realm. The vengeful ancient, Nether, finally freed from her prison, longs for revenge against those who decided her fate. And this time, Molly just might not be enough to fight them all, despite having everything to lose. This is the final installment in the Hidden urban fantasy series. Views: 41
27 mystery tales of Dr. John Thorndyke (and others). Views: 41
"When we're young we tend to think of memory as something belonging to us. There are good memories and bad ones, but aside from forgetting names occasionally, it is hard to imagine what ceasing to rely on your memory means. My mind still functions enough for me to be frightened and feel diminished. Someday, I hope not too soon, I'll cease to be alarmed...." -- Renzo, from After Auschwitz: A Love Story Two of the 20th century's terrible A's collide in this powerful novel -- Alzheimer's Disease and the Auschwitz death camp. Brenda Webster brings to bear her considerable knowledge of Jewish and Italian history and culture, personal acquaintance with the families of luminaries like Primo Levi, and a lifetime of psychological insight as she observes the intellectual decline of Renzo, a once brilliant writer and filmmaker. The novel is set entirely in Rome in 2010, and benefits from the author's comfortable familiarity with the city's haunts, both hidden and famous. Renzo, aware that he is slipping deeper and deeper into the haze of Alzheimer's, keeps a journal in which he grapples with his complicated marriage to Hannah, who survived the death camps as a child and went on to become a chronicler of that experience. Renzo knows how painful it is for Hannah to lose yet another loved one -- himself -- as he chronicles his own failing grip on reality. This story of enduring love -- a love that makes the pain bearable -- inspires hope where there appears to be despair, and allows humor to leaven the loaf of existence. As Renzo's rich memories of the artistic and intellectual currents of the 20th century begin to fade, highly lyrical passages elucidate his sophisticated anguish and his child-like wonder.**ReviewThis one-of-a-kind novel depicting love between an aging Roman film director suffering from the onset of dementia and a Holocaust survivor is not for the faint-hearted. It takes you to places you don't want to go, but the voyage is not just searing but also transcendent. After Auschwitz: A Love Story will remain with you long after you have put it down. -- Marilyn Yalom, Senior Scholar, Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University; author: How the French Invented Love: 900 Years of Passion and Romance Webster's new novel blends the horrors of the holocaust with the redeeming power of love. The plot traces the lives of Hannah, a child survivor of Auschwitz, and her husband, Italian filmmaker Renzo, as he becomes increasingly crippled with age and Alzheimers and dependent on her. If this sounds grim, it is not -- thanks to Webster's marvelous writing, deft touch, and her own love for her characters. A wonderful read that I can strongly recommend to everyone.-- Louis Breger, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Psychoanalytic Studies, Caltech; author: FREUD: Darkness in the Midst of Vision Brenda Webster's new novel is a brave and haunting love story. The narrator's struggle with the ravages of old age, his strain to hang onto mental coherence, are rendered with unblinking persuasiveness, and his sheltering in the care of the woman he has long loved, left, and to whom he has finally returned, is imagined unsentimentally and movingly. -- Robert Alter, author: The Pleasure of Reading in an Ideological Age After Auschwitz: A Love Story is without a doubt the most profound, moving and important of Webster's novels. The level of complexity and insight is remarkable. I was deeply moved by her exploration of relationships and long term love and commitment in the face of aging, parenting, dealing with loss, illness, ambivalence, ambiguity, and the prospect of imminent death. -- Alan Rinzler, legendary editor of Toni Morrison, Tom Robbins, etc. An intimate and real portrayal of memory loss, [After Auschwitz: A Love Story] tells the story of an imperfect love maintained through mutual caretaking. Webster makes it feel real. -- ForeWord ReviewsFrom the AuthorThe Funeral of Primo Levian excerpt from the new novelAFTER AUSCHWITZ: A Love Storyby Brenda WebsterPublished by Outskirts PressReprinted here with permission. INTRODUCTION: The excerpt, below, is from the new book, After Auschwitz: A Love Story, by author, playwright and critic, Brenda Webster. The excerpt takes place at the funeral of a friend of Hannah and Renzo's, causing Renzo to think back on the funeral of the famous writer, Primo Levi. A Holocaust survivor who committed suicide, Primo's funeral -- like this book -- raised uncomfortable issues about how best to navigate the end of life. The Funeral of Primo Levian excerpt from the new novelAFTER AUSCHWITZ: A Love Storyby Brenda Webster At the cemetery I think I somehow expected a crowd like the one that followed Primo Levi's coffin. Would a reader nowadays understand the reference? You'd think as an Italian he would at least know the name and be able to say by rote: a great writer Primo Levi, one of the greatest in our time. But what would it mean to him? What remnants of a moral vision are left in our modern consumerist Italy? The economic miracle without a soul. By now only the grandchildren of survivors are alive and the very old like me. Of course I had read Primo's books about Auschwitz. I'd admired his lucidity, his absence of rage at his persecutors, wondered how he could sustain these things; apparently he couldn't. In the end he succumbed, hurled himself down the stairwell of his mother's house. People said it was a delayed reaction to Auschwitz. That made it murder, not suicide, and allowed him to remain a hero. One can think that one is suffering at facing the future and instead be suffering because of one's past. I think he said that, though he didn't mean it in the Freudian sense. Then too he thought a lot about suicide. He talks in particular about an Austrian philosopher tortured by the Gestapo. This man, Amery, unable to forget what he'd been through, became incapable of finding joy in life, in living itself. That makes me feel that I am on the right track in soaking myself in whatever pleasure I find. Just now a great flock of starlings went by, turning the sky dark with the beating of wings. Off to a new roosting place, I suppose. Primo found solace reciting Dante's Ulysses canto in which, if I remember correctly, Ulysses wants to sail to the ends of the known earth. Was hubris his sin? It was enough to see the rabbi recite the kaddish to throw me back to that awful day. Back then, another spring morning, Hannah couldn't stop crying. Primo had called her in despair a few days before his death, and she had responded to him as if he had a headache, lecturing him on setting an example for the rest of them, the survivors. "You couldn't have known," I told her. It seemed impossible that the man who had looked at the worst human beings can do to each other, that this man had done violence to himself. SAVED BUT DROWNED the newspapers trumpeted. TURIN MOURNS THE MAESTRO. But his funeral itself was like a silent movie. There were no noisy speeches. The widow in black and dark glasses walked behind him. So did she, of course, Gabriella. "Delayed homicide," the rabbi had called it, so that he could be buried with honor. The Jews, like the Christians and Muslims, think of suicide as a sin and bury suicides in a separate unconsecrated part of the cemetery. Hannah thought it wasn't the camps that had destroyed him; she insisted it was a love problem, an affair with a German woman. This seemed strange but she insisted, though she wouldn't tell me how she knew. And just now there was a biography that hinted at the same thing. His sister hated it, of course, and I put both biographies away somewhere and now I can't find them. I have some bookshelves set under the gable windows. I put them there when I was agile enough to crawl in and retrieve them. Anyway, I thought that Primo was worn down by the difficulties of living virtually imprisoned by his aged blind mother. Living with her was as much a litmus test of character as living in the Lager. Copyright ©2014 by Brenda Webster. All rights reserved. After Auschwitz: A Love Story, is published by WingsPress and available wherever fine books are sold or directly from the publisher. All WingsPress titles are distributed through Independent Publishers Group at 1-800-888-4741 and available at IndieBound.org Views: 41
Created more than forty years ago by secret executive order, Red Cell Seven is a highly classified intelligence agency tasked with protecting America from the most catastrophic of terrorist attacks. But in the aftermath of a string of deadly terrorist attacks across the nation, Red Cell Seven finds itself drawn into a conspiracy that threatens to tear the organization apart. The president himself calls on Troy Jensen, a high-level clandestine operative and the son of Red Cell Seven’s current leader, to spearhead the hunt for the terrorists—even though Troy is still reeling from the murder of his brother. The deeper Troy digs, the clearer it becomes that the “Holiday Mall Attacks” are just the opening salvo in fiendishly complex plot. Powerful forces are working to undermine Red Cell Seven, and Troy will have to risk everything to uncover the truth and protect what’s left of his family. The sequel from the bestselling author of Arctic Fire, Red Cell Seven delivers edge of your seat action.Review“Comparisons of Frey to Grisham and Clancy are apt—he’s got the same ability to mesmerize his readers with fast moving action, gripping intrigue and larger than life characters. A WINNER! —*Booklist * “(Frey) does for the trading floors what John Grisham does for the bench.” —ForbesAbout the AuthorStephen Frey has spent twenty-five years working in investment banking and private equity at firms including J.P. Morgan & Company in New York City and Winston Partners in Arlington, Virginia. He is the author of eighteen novels, including the first book about Red Cell Seven, Arctic Fire. He lives in Leesburg, Virginia, where he writes full-time. Views: 41
