"The Rain God is a lost masterpiece that helped launch a legion of writers. Its return, in times like these, is a plot twist that perhaps only Arturo Islas himself could have conjured. May it win many new readers." — Luis Alberto Urrea, bestselling author of The House of Broken Angels and The Hummingbird’s Daughter "Rivers, rivulets, fountains and waters flow, but never return to their joyful beginnings; anxiously they hasten on to the vast realms of the Rain God." A beloved Southwestern classic—as beautiful, subtle and profound as the desert itself—Arturo Islas's The Rain God is a breathtaking masterwork of contemporary literature. Set in a fictional small town on the Texas-Mexico border, it tells the funny, sad and quietly outrageous saga of the children and grandchildren of Mama Chona the indomitable matriarch of the Angel clan who fled the bullets and blood of the 1911 revolution for a gringo land of promise. In bold creative strokes, Islas paints on unforgettable family portrait of souls haunted by ghosts and madness--sinners torn by loves, lusts and dangerous desires. From gentle hearts plagued by violence and epic delusions to a child who con foretell the coming of rain in the sweet scent of angels, here is a rich and poignant tale of outcasts struggling to live and die with dignity . . . and to hold onto their past while embracing an unsteady future.
Colliding with the Call takes the reader on a journey through the wilderness of faith that often happens after a Christian decides to follow and serve God. Both those in ministry and missions and those curious about life on the "frontlines" will find encouragement and inspiration in these pages.Back cover copy:I've surrendered to following God's will, but this is not what I expected. Where's the peace? The joy? The fruit? Did I somehow miss the call, God?Sound familiar? Those were Corella's questions, too, as she found herself in a literal and spiritual wilderness after answering the call to become a missionary teacher in remote Alaska. Through these pages, you'll journey with her to unearth glimpses of God's purpose for those seven dark years. With tenderness and conviction, she examines the reality of the wilderness in the life of the believer and the scriptural truths that offer hope in the midst of disappointment.Corella's story of undoing and rebirth in the wilderness just might be your story, too, if you dare to let God take you there.
A profoundly moving childhood memoir by one of the most widely acclaimed Black American writers of her generation Captured with astonishing beauty, through the eyes of a child, Soldier paints the battleground of June Jordan’s youth as the gifted daughter of Jamaican immigrants, struggling under the humiliations of racism, sexism, and poverty in 1940s New York. “There was a war on against colored people, against poor people,” Jordan writes, and she watches her mother turn inward in her suffering, her father lashing out, often violently, against his own daughter. She learns to harden herself, to be a “soldier,” while preserving a deep capacity for love and wonder. Poignantly exploring the nature of memory, imagination, and familial as well as social responsibility, Jordan re-creates the vivid world in which her identity as a social and artistic revolutionary was forged.
Palestine, first century A.D.-the Jews have revolted against Roman occupation. The ten Greek cities of Palestine-the Decapolis-want only to continue their peaceful trading existence, but they find themselves caught in the middle of the uprisings. Apollodorus, a merchant of Philadelphia, takes a risk and rescues a man whom a Roman patrol has left to die in the desert. When Apollodorus is killed by robbers, his three sons are left almost penniless and must each find a way for themselves. Philo, the youngest, is befriended by Xenos, the man saved from the desert, who has lost his memory. From him the boy learns the art of the scribe, and together they try to find their identity-one from the past, the other for the future. A serious story of an important time in history. This is the sequel to The Ides of April.
From the award-winning poet and playwright behind Barber Shop Chronicles, The Half-God of Rainfall is an epic story and a lyrical exploration of pride, power and female revenge.
"A work of fiction about three generations of a Mexican-American family living the contradictions of the borderland.Islas stretches the boundaries of the reader's empathy through his passionate respect for the ways women and men find to live with dignity and hope".--Jacket.
"A delightful novel...impossible to resist." —Barbara Kingsolver, Los Angeles Times Book Review Sofia and her fated daughters, Fe, Esperanza, Caridad, and la Loca, endure hardship and enjoy love in the sleepy New Mexico hamlet of Tome, a town teeming with marvels where the comic and the horrific, the real and the supernatural, reside.
*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading Gilgamesh, Hercules, Aeneas, and Lancelot are instantly recognized as mythological heroes in the West, evoking visions of Persian monsters, ghastly labors, and the founding and glorification of cities, but the name Quetzalcoatl is as mysterious as its spelling. Even those who have come across his name when learning about the history of Mesoamerica - particularly the Aztec and the god's role in the Spanish conquest of their empire - are often unaware that the Mesoamerican deity has tales that equal any of those in the repertoire of the mythological figures mentioned above, and the tale of his transmission into modern times is no less fascinating. As archaeologists quickly learned, there are numerous temples dedicated to gods all across Mesoamerica, from the Olmec and Toltec to the Aztec and Maya. Furthermore, thousands of people still gather in the ruins of Mesoamerican cities, even as researchers learn more about the civilizations that continue to generate interest among modern societies. Gods and myths reflect the societies that created them. The lustrous Garden of Eden was dreamed up by those for whom such verdant plenty could only be magical when compared with their usually arid environment. Peoples who endured harsh winters sang of eternal hearth fires and those who were threatened by dangerous animals told stories of humans who could tame them. Of course, these deities also often reflected the nuanced difficulties their creators experienced in their daily lives, and this is the case with the Aztec god Tlaloc. As the great scholar of Mesoamerican history and religion Kay Almere Read put it, "Rain and water deities constitute perhaps the largest, one of the oldest, most pervasive and complex group of gods and goddesses in Mesoamerica." The Valley of Mexico is the central elevated basin that contains Mexico City at its heart today. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley's lowest point is actually some 2200 meters above sea level and just like the plains of Mesopotamia or the Nile Delta, it is one of humanity's great birthplaces of civilization. Inhabited for over 12,000 years, it was the home to such creative cultures as the Teotihuacan, the Toltec, and the Aztec. These cultures built vast empires and colored them with sophisticated art and architecture, which is invaluable for scholars who study the groups today, and symbols of Tlaloc have been pervasive across their ruins. One of the reasons for the prevalence of Tlaloc in the Valley of Mexico is that in the semi-arid climate, water was a powerful daily symbol. Although there were no naturally occurring water connections to the sea, the high altitude of the mountains and volcanoes that surrounded it caught the rain water well and formed five important lakes: Xochimilco, Xaltocan, Zumpango, Chalco and Texcoco. As the largest, Texcoco was where the Aztecs eventually built their capital city Tenochtitlan. Since this was not a desert culture, their god Tlaloc was not just a reflection of an opposite extreme they desired; instead, he was a complex god that reflected the duality of water as both a boon and a force for destruction. From his home in Tlalocan, Tlaloc was able to send good and bad waters to the people of the Valley of Mexico and beyond. He was the lord of the chthonic powers of Mexico even as far south as the Maya, who called him Chaac and connected him with warfare and agriculture much the same way the Aztec did. The Aztec tell the story of Tlaloc blessing their rise to regional dominance by sending a famine to the Toltec, and his duality of good waters vs. bad waters was a product of the largely two-season system in Mexico. Tlaloc: The History of the Aztec God of Rain and Giver of Life examines the origins of the deity and his place in the pantheon of gods.
