During a fateful summer, 13-year-old Jake Weber witnesses the brutal murder of a Native American woman by the town banker. Jake's parents forbid him to speak of the killing or name its perpetrator, even as the woman's African American lover stands falsely accused. The crime and what follows it forever alter Jake's view of his parents and the world around him. Faraway Places won widespread praise for its vivid narrative and incantatory style, and Spanbauer displays singular skill in inhabiting the mind of a troubled adolescent boy.
A powerfully told story of the love between two brothers in the aftermath of a family tragedy Griff and Dylan are driving into Manhattan with their parents when the worst happens. There is a terrible car accident and Dylan and Griff1s parents are killed. The boys are suddenly orphans with nowhere to go, until a kind aunt and uncle give them a new home in Wales. Now Dylan and Griff have everything they need love, a happy home and a future. But Dylan is worried about Griff: whether he is OK, whether he is coping with his grief. He doesn't seem to want to speak about it or really acknowledge the loss of their parents. But Dylan needs to be even braver than Griff, because there is something very important he needs to face up to before he can move on. The heartbreaking new novel from award-winning author Hayley Long Winner of the Mal Peet Children's Book Award at the 2017 East Anglian Book Awards, the Tir na n-Og Award (English language) 2018, the Staffordshire Libraries YTF2018 (Young Teen Fiction) Book Award and the Young Jury Prize 2020 (Flanders). Nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2018 Shortlisted for the Brilliant Book Award 2019, the Warwickshire Secondary Books Award 2019, the Stockport Children's Book Award 2018, the Hillingdon Secondary Book of the Year 2018 and the Dudley Teen Book Awards 2018
Faraway Places is a collection of three novellas that goes to dark and dingy places that the faint-hearted might wish are truly faraway. But are they? Not when you take a crazed trip with an odd-ball who dreams of a faraway place, while all the while he is on a slow-burn to insanity. Maybe he can solve the problem of living in a caravan alongside a garbage tip with a foul-mouthed significant other and a companion dog. That's not an easy problem to solve when you lack initiative. Perhaps the frozen wastelands of pre-revolutionary Russia are a change of location, but still you'll find that it's that kind of faraway place where many bizarre things could be possible: dogheaded people might exist, a nasty con-man can become a tsar and, if you want to save your skin, there are people you should avoid. If that’s not enough, then waiting to be solved is the provenance of two mysterious trunks and their contents in the basement of St Petersburg's Hermitage. Finally, a misconstruction about a killing on an isolated farm in a British colony in 1815 leads to disastrous consequences. Decent men can commit abominable acts and criminals can be decent. In this faraway place, it's brutal times all round - brutal times for the original native inhabitants, for settlers and their women, and for the convicts and child convicts. A gripping read.
The Lure of Faraway Places is the publication canoeist Herb Pohl (1930-2006) did not live to see published. But Pohl’s words and images provide a unique portrait of Canada by one who was happiest when travelling our northern waterways alone. Austrian-born Herb Pohl died at the mouth of the Michipcoten River on July 17, 2006. He is remembered as "Canada’s most remarkable solo traveller." While mourning their loss, Herb Pohl’s friends found, to their surprise and delight, a manuscript of wilderness writings on his desk in his lakeside apartment in Burlington, Ontario. He had hoped one day to publish his work as a book. With help and commentary from best-selling canoe author and editor James Raffan, Natural Heritage is proud to present that book, Herb’s book, The Lure of Faraway Places. "There’s nothing like it in canoeing literature," says Raffan. "It’s part journal, part memoir, part wilderness philosophy and part tips and tricks of the most pragmatic kind written about parts of the country most of us will never see by the most committed and ambitious solo canoeist in Canadian history."
A collection of memoirs and stories about a variety of travel experiences that changed the lives of such well-known writers as Lois Lowry, Suzie Morgenstern, and Harry Mazer.
Faraway Places resides in the spaces between the wild and the tamed, from orchid gardens and immense seas to caged birds and high alpine landscapes. It resists narrative and instead inhabits the residues of experience. It may be a private dictionary: “Those / who know the lore can use them / to find their way / in the world.” Haunted and searching, these poems navigate the distances between light and shadow, secrets and silence.
A collection of four short stories about people at the crossroads of life. The road they take will lead them to positive or negative consequences. The stories are about self-determination and human struggle. The Garden of the Republic: An impulsive New Yorker who is bored with his life joins a NGO and travels to Tucuman, Argentina to build a health clinic. He meets a few individuals who have a tremendous impact on his stay as he learns about Argentina's Dirty War during the 1980s. Zabalburu Urkia: An Irishman with slight disabilities sees his life passing by him. he takes a chance and goes to Durango, the Basque Country in Spain, to teach English. Once there, his disabilities make it stressful for him and by accident learns about the lost treasure of the Basque diaspora. The Bells of Gloucester: Two young lads from Gloucester, England, best friends since childhood, slowly drift apart as their life takes them down different paths. Their new friends make them decide which direction they'll go. It's a story about the pressures of adolescence and redemption. Celtic Verde: An allegory tale about the only constant in life is change. The story uses metaphorical characters who represent the cycles of life-birth, selfishness, hope and death. Connor, a self-centred man from Chicago, with Irish heritage, thinks adolescence will last forever. As an adult, he runs from responsibility. He leaves his elderly parents in their time of need and goes to Ireland to look for work, but discovers how much Ireland has changed. Desperate, he gets tempted to make a wish at an ancient water well.
This memoir is about alternative paths of viewing life. How the creative mind can set its own course. How youthful adventure can grow into something others may find terrifying. How youth can be fortunate to survive the folly of its own nature. How consequences are learned by practical experiences. How practical experiences become the most efficient teacher. Having led an unconventional childhood, I was always captivated by unusual circumstances during my formative years. I grew up viewing life differently. To me, dangerous was adventurous. A challenge was something that required action. I sought creativity where others sought common place. The word “trite” was not in my vocabulary. Creative inspiration pushed me towards my life’s goals. As I grew older, it was my love of unusual experiences that developed my mindset. I listened carefully to the advice those over 60 offered. I questioned what others ignored. I chose the direction of my life based on fulfillment rather than wealth. This memoir was written out of pure joy. Part adventure, part insight of the human condition, and part foolhardy examples of youth; This book will reveal a colorful perspective on life. Happy reading.
A sweeping history of the Cold War’s many “hot” wars born in the last gasps of empire The Cold War reigns in popular imagination as a period of tension between the two post-World War II superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, without direct conflict. Drawing from new archival research, prize-winning historian Michael Burleigh gives new meaning to the seminal decades of 1945 to 1965 by examining the many, largely forgotten, “hot” wars fought around the world. As once-great Western colonial empires collapsed, counter-insurgencies campaigns raged in the Philippines, the Congo, Iran, and other faraway places. Dozens of new nations struggled into existence, the legacies of which are still felt today. Placing these vicious struggles alongside the period-defining United States and Soviet standoffs in Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba, Burleigh swerves from Algeria to Kenya, to Vietnam and Kashmir, interspersing top-level diplomatic negotiations with portraits of the charismatic local leaders. The result is a dazzling work of history, a searing analysis of the legacy of imperialism and a reminder of just how the United States became the world’s great enforcer.
Narrow-gauge railroading conjures images of marginal track, wooden coaches, and antique steam locomotives. Yet consider the extraordinarily glamorous and comfortable South African Blue Train and Australia's Queenslander as well as the electrified network of meter-gauge mountain railways in Switzerland that run with a precision similar to that of the country's famed timepieces. Often used to penetrate the most challenging and breathtaking terrain that larger trains are unable to reach, narrow-gauge railways offer even the most seasoned of travelers an experience to remember. Karl Zimmermann, railroad author and accomplished photographer, chronicles his journeys aboard these rarest of trains. Individual chapters weave history and travelogue, complemented by more than 100 color illustrations. The result is a spirited tribute to the world's most charismatic railways.
