A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A breathtaking love story—a saga of passion, tenacity, and hope in the face of disaster We first meet Zwazo Delalun, or Zo, during his childhood, in the 1990s, in a fishing village on the western tip of Haiti. An orphan, he travels the island in his youth, finding work wherever he can. One morning, while hauling cement in the broiling sun, he meets Anaya, a nursing student who is sipping cherry juice under a tree. Their attraction is instantaneous, fierce; what grows between them feels like the destiny-changing love Zo has yearned for. But Anaya’s father, protective and ambitious on behalf of his only daughter, cannot accept that a poor, uneducated man such as Zo is good enough for her, and he sends Anaya away to Port-au-Prince. Then something even more shattering happens: a massive earthquake churns the ground beneath the capital city, forever altering the course of life for those who survive. At once suspenseful, heartrending, and gorgeously lyrical, Zo is an unforgettable journey of heroism, grief, redemption, and persistence against all odds.
Haiti, the Caribbean, 2011. The streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, are beyond recognition after the fragile nation is hit by the worst earthquake in its history. Devastation is immense and reconstruction work is beyond a lifetime’s realisation. But, while the people are suffering from disease and privation and the State is entirely dependent on foreign aid, an underground economy is flourishing. Micha Collaro is a powerful drug lord who rules his borderless empire with an iron fist. With the help of his loyal aids, scooped from the desperate slums of the city, he will stop at nothing in expanding his control over the small, troubled country’s political systems, and defending his position as top kingpin in the nefarious Caribbean black market. His goal is supremacy and fortune; his means are threats, coercion and violence. To stand in his way is to join the growing list of mysterious disappearances, to be disposed of quietly like so many others on the disaster-stricken streets of the Haitian capital. Principled and driven Danish aid-worker Vicki Salling, whose only objective is to help the Haitian people overcome a hardship that has impressed itself on every aspect of daily life, did exactly that… From the bustling marketplaces and towering ruins of Port-au-Prince, to the idyllic beach resorts and hedonistic parties of the neighbouring Dominican Republic, danger awaits Vicki at every turn. A situation that catches her off her guard brings incalculable consequences, and she learns that the structures holding her life together are much more volatile than she thought.
On January 12, 2010, the deadliest earthquake in the history of the Western Hemisphere struck the nation least prepared to handle it. Jonathan M. Katz, the only full-time American news correspondent in Haiti, was inside his house when it buckled along with hundreds of thousands of others. In this visceral, authoritative first-hand account, Katz chronicles the terror of that day, the devastation visited on ordinary Haitians, and how the world reacted to a nation in need. More than half of American adults gave money for Haiti, part of a monumental response totaling $16.3 billion in pledges. But three years later the relief effort has foundered. It's most basic promises—to build safer housing for the homeless, alleviate severe poverty, and strengthen Haiti to face future disasters—remain unfulfilled. The Big Truck That Went By presents a sharp critique of international aid that defies today's conventional wisdom; that the way wealthy countries give aid makes poor countries seem irredeemably hopeless, while trapping millions in cycles of privation and catastrophe. Katz follows the money to uncover startling truths about how good intentions go wrong, and what can be done to make aid "smarter." With coverage of Bill Clinton, who came to help lead the reconstruction; movie-star aid worker Sean Penn; Wyclef Jean; Haiti's leaders and people alike, Katz weaves a complex, darkly funny, and unexpected portrait of one of the world's most fascinating countries. The Big Truck That Went By is not only a definitive account of Haiti's earthquake, but of the world we live in today.
"In the course of an impressive career as a writer, Herbert Gold has demonstrated many gifts, among them his talent for mak-ing high drama of ordinary events, ordinary people." -Chicago Tribune Book World "Gold...has a sharp eye for detail."-The Washington Times Magazine "Not just a good book, but a great one."-Daily Mail (London) "Herbert Gold... gives his stories a wry, bright air of wonder...he is a born storyteller."-New York Times "One of the most gifted writers in America."-Detroit Times Important writers are expected to gather together collections of their shorter works-the obligatory book of stories or essays. In this collection, Herbert Gold discards convention, and instead combines fiction and non-fiction themes that have been important to him as a writer and social thinker. This "interchange between fact and fiction," as Gold writes, "presents the picture of an American mind wrestling with the American mentality." And that mind ranges wide: from the miseries of Haiti to the disasters of Biafra; from the new universities and the beatniks and hippies of San Francisco in the 1960s to the literary life and encounters with random violence, love, death, and sexuality in the present. Portions of this book have been published in periodicals as varied as Esquire and Look, Hudson Review, and Tri-Quarterly, and some appear here for the first time. For this edition, Gold bridges the sections with new introductions, which link the specific works, the times, and his life. The book includes the savage and moving story "A Death on the East Side," and his meditation on the doom of Biafra and the meaning of its fate. He has added two new essays, "King of the Cleveland Beatniks," about his brother, and "Quality Time with Sonny Barger," about the former president of the Hell's Angels Oakland Chapter. These show his consistent interest in what many would see as the margins of social life. Of the title, the author writes: "The Magic Will" seeks to make the real world unreal and magical, and the unreal and magical world practical and real." Amusing, touching, playful, ultimately deeply serious, this book by Herbert Gold further illuminates the mind and heart of a superb writer. It will be a joy to those interested in the humanities, as well as cultural history and social awareness in the broadest sense. Herbert Gold is a novelist, short story writer, essayist, and occasional journalist, who has made his living as a writer for fifty years.
"e;Chris's book is an exciting danger-filled journey from England to Haiti. A gripping read. I highly recommend it to all armchair adventurers."e; Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE - Named by the Guinness Book of Records as "e;the world's greatest living explorer"e;It's 1963. 13-year-old Chris watches 'Doctor No' and dreams of emulating his hero: James Bond, 007.Two years later Chris' world is shattered when the father he idolises deserts the family leaving him to help support his mother and younger brother. He quits school with no qualifications but miraculously finds a job as a clerical assistant with the Ministry of Defence, hoping that Martinis and Aston Martins will soon follow.Chris quickly realises however, that clerical assistants never get to be secret agents.One evening, a chat with a local copper convinces Chris to join the police. Twenty-six years of active service follow until his career is cut short by a car accident leaving him with a broken neck. Medically discharged from the police but still longing for adventurous work, Chris takes a job as a bouncer.When the BBC comes calling, looking for bouncers to star in 'Muscle' - a new documentary series investigating city centre violence - Chris finds himself unexpectedly in the spotlight.While filming 'Muscle' he's sent to Los Angeles to train as a weapons carrying bodyguard. Impressed by his skills, the organisation invites him to join an elite team of mercenaries tasked with guarding the president of the impoverished Republic of Haiti.Follow Chris's remarkable journey from the streets of Bristol to the land of Voodoo, violent revolution and the ever-present spectre of death.REVIEWS"e;Love it, my anxiety was trying to kick in after the first sentence"e;Rich Jones, Author of 'Charlie Four Kilo' www.CharlieFourKilo.com"e;I'd put you on par with Andy McNab"e;Kevin Timpson, Mid Glamorgan, Wales UK"e;Call Sign Chopper has the ring of authenticity about it. It's the precise little things, like When Chris Nott says of a burned body, "e;all I knew for sure was that they had been wearing boots."e; I was with Chris in Haiti. It was a different day but I can still remember with crystal clarity that one fly buzzing round a body and the rest, landed and feasting on the blood."e;Bill Brookman, Loughborough, Leicestershire
Post-disaster housing concerns and dilemmas are complex, global in nature, and are inextricably intertwined with social, economic, and political considerations. The multi-faceted nature of housing recovery requires a holistic approach that accounts for its numerous dimensions and contours that are best captured with multi-disciplinary, multi-scalar, and multi-hazard approaches. This book serves as a valuable resource by highlighting the key issues and challenges that need to be addressed with regard to post-disaster housing. By featuring a collection of case studies on various disasters that have occurred globally and written by scholars and practitioners from various disciplines, it highlights the rich diversity of approaches taken to solve post-disaster housing problems. Coming home after Disaster can serve as an essential reference for researchers and practitioners in disaster and emergency management, public administration, public policy, urban planning, sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, architecture, and other related social science fields. Key features in this book are: Addresses a wide range of dilemmas such as differential levels of social and physical vulnerability; problems related to land tenure, home-ownership, property rights, planning, and zoning; and political and legal challenges to housing recovery. Discusses the role played by public, private and non-governmental organizations, the informal sector, financial institutions, and insurance in rebuilding and housing recovery. Features global case studies, incorporates relevant examples and policies, and offers solutions from a range of scholars working in multiple disciplines and different countries.
The history of Haiti throughout the twentieth century has been marked by oppression at the hands of colonial and dictatorial overlords. But set against this "day for the hunter" has been a "day for the prey," a history of resistance, and sometimes of triumph. With keen cultural and historical awareness, Gage Averill shows that Haiti's vibrant and expressive music has been one of the most highly charged instruments in this struggle—one in which power, politics, and resistance are inextricably fused. Averill explores such diverse genres as Haitian jazz, troubadour traditions, Vodou-jazz, konpa, mini-djaz, new generation, and roots music. He examines the complex interaction of music with power in contexts such as honorific rituals, sponsored street celebrations, Carnival, and social movements that span the political spectrum. With firsthand accounts by musicians, photos, song texts, and ethnographic descriptions, this book explores the profound manifestations of power and song in the day-to-day efforts of ordinary Haitians to rise above political repression.
Monitoring Water Quality is a practical assessment of one of the most pressing growth and sustainability issues in the developed and developing worlds: water quality. Over the last 10 years, improved laboratory techniques have led to the discovery of microbial and viral contaminants, pharmaceuticals, and endocrine disruptors in our fresh water supplies that were not monitored previously. This book offers in-depth coverage of water quality issues (natural and human-related), monitoring of contaminants, and remediation of water contamination. In particular, readers will learn about arsenic removal techniques, real-time monitoring, and risk assessment. Monitoring Water Quality is a vital text for students and professionals in environmental science, civil engineering, chemistry — anyone concerned with issues of water analysis and sustainability assessment. - Covers in depth the scope of sustainable water problems on a worldwide scale - Provides a rich source of sophisticated methods for analyzing water to assure its safety - Describes the monitoring of contaminants, including pharmaceutical and endocrine disruptors - Helps to quickly identify the sources and fates of contaminants and sources of pollutants and their loading
Thinking in Public provides a probing and provocative meditation on the intellectual life and legacy of Jacques Roumain. As a work of intellectual history, the book investigates the intersections of religious ideas, secular humanism, and development within the framework of Roumain's public intellectualism and cultural criticism embodied in his prolific writings. The book provides a reconceptualization of Roumain's intellectual itineraries against the backdrop of two public spheres: a national public sphere (Haiti) and a transnational public sphere (the global world). Second, it remaps and reframes Roumain's intellectual circuits and his critical engagements within a wide range of intellectual traditions, cultural and political movements, and philosophical and religious systems. Third, the book argues that Roumain's perspective on religion, social development, and his critiques of religion in general and of institutionalized Christianity in particular were substantially influenced by a Marxist philosophy of history and secular humanist approach to faith and human progress. Finally, the book advances the idea that Roumain's concept of development is linked to the theories of democratic socialism, relational anthropology, distributive justice, and communitarianism. Ultimately, this work demonstrates that Roumain believed that only through effective human solidarity and collaboration can serious social transformation and real human emancipation take place.
Florida Historical Society Rembert Patrick Award The rich friendship of two remarkable women talking to each other in letters Exploring the rich, enduring companionship shared by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Julia Scribner Bigham through never-before-published letters, Marge and Julia provides a revelatory depiction of these two literary women’s experiences in mid-twentieth-century America. Pulitzer Prize–winning author Rawlings was first introduced to Julia Scribner (later Bigham), daughter of publishing magnate Charles Scribner III, shortly after the legendary Scribner House published The Yearling to runaway success. Though Julia’s New York City life was far removed from the rural world of Cross Creek, the two women remained close until Rawlings’s death in 1953, after which Scribner Bigham served as Rawlings’s literary executor. In this documentary edition of 211 of their letters, Rawlings’s and Bigham’s perspectives on the world are woven through over a decade of intimate discussion and advice about relationships, motherhood, mental health, politics, art, and literature. Supplementing the letters with an introduction, explanatory footnotes, and a reminiscence by Scribner Bigham’s eldest daughter, Hildreth Julia Bigham McCarthy, MD, this edition provides historical context and prompts readers to inspect the facets of both women’s complex relationship with issues such as racial discrimination, class, and gender inequality. These letters offer an unprecedented performance of two women’s intimate friendship, one that transcended the limitations of patriarchy as they wrote their lives in letters.
