By Nobel Prize Winner Peter Handke Provocative, romantic, and restlessly exploratory, Peter Handke is one of the great writers of our time. Slow Homecoming, originally published in the late 1970s, is central to his achievement and to the powerful influence he has exercised on other writers, chief among them W.G. Sebald. A novel of self-questioning and self-discovery, Slow Homecoming is a singular odyssey, an escape from the distractions of the modern world and the unhappy consciousness, a voyage that is fraught and fearful but ultimately restorative, ending on an unexpected note of joy. The book begins in America. Writing with the jarring intensity of his early work, Handke introduces Valentin Sorger, a troubled geologist who has gone to Alaska to lose himself in his work, but now feels drawn back home: on his way to Europe he moves in ominous disorientation through the great cities of America. The second part of the book, “The Lesson of Mont Sainte-Victoire,” identifies Sorger as a projection of the author, who now writes directly about his own struggle to reconstitute himself and his art by undertaking a pilgrimage to the great mountain that Cézanne painted again and again. Finally, “Child Story” is a beautifully observed, deeply moving account of a new father—not so much Sorger or the author as a kind of Everyman—and his love for his growing daughter.
We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understanding--"tribes." This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival. Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today. Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, Tribe explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that-for many veterans as well as civilians-war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. Tribe explains why we are stronger when we come together, and how that can be achieved even in today's divided world.
"Mother Maria," "Home-Coming" and "Bridge to the Sky" are parts of trilogy “God's Miracles in Lives of Regular People” with main character Countess Maria Kotyk-Kurbatov. Trilogy is based on journals of Countess Maria. Descriptive imagination of author transformed dry data into inspirational life and love story. The readers transcend space and time, joining Maria in her happiness and heartbreaking sadness, life-saving love and devastating losses, terrible hardships and miraculous triumphs. “Home-coming” is the 2-nd book of trilogy. Author brings reader to post-war Western Ukraine together with mother-to-be Maria and her husband Alexander Kurbatov. They arrived to take Maria’s father and siblings to France away from communist regime that expropriated family wealth and evicted the Kotyks from manor. The reader learns, how Maria’s plans have been ruined due to illegal and inhumane actions of NKVD. Maria and Alexander were arrested and went through hell on Earth. Their short trip was transformed into a life-long detour. In Lviv prison, the Kurbatovs were found “guilty” in “high treason”, “espionage and terroristic acts” on territory of USSR. There was no court hearing and no chance for defense. Maria and Alexander were sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment in GULAG – chain of Russian political labor camps in ever frozen zones. It was extremely difficult for a pregnant woman to work in mine, but it was even more complicated for baby to survive in prison. Maria prayed and God created miracles. Through Devine intervention, Maria and Alexander were found innocent and released from camps with 10-year-old son. The authorities promised repatriation to France. Faith and love guided the Kurbatovs in prison and post-prison life. Being exhausted from misery of life in Magadan zone and endless waiting for repatriation to France, Alexander visited KGB office. The reader discovers the most unpredictable KGB answer that impacted their family. Content Words: • Inspirational • Romance • Family Saga • GULAG • Russia / former USSR • KGB
After seven long years in the Delta Quadrant, the crew of the Starship Voyager now confront the strangest world of all: home. For Admiral Kathryn Janeway and her officers, Voyager's miraculous return to planet Earth brings new honours and new responsibilities. For some there are reunions with long-lost loved ones, while for others such as the Doctor and Seven of Nine, there is the challenge of forging new lives in a Federation that seems to hold little place for them. But even as Janeway and the others go their separate ways, pursuing new horizons and opportunities, a strange cybernetic plague strikes Earth, transforming men, women and children into a new generation of Borg. Soon the entire planet faces assimilation, and Voyager -- newly returned from the heartland of the Borg -- may be to blame.