Recipient of the 2014 American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Foundation Award A major debut from an award-winning writer—an epic family saga set against the magic and the rhythms of the Virgin Islands. In the early 1900s, the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule, and an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea. Orphaned by the shipwreck are two sisters and their half brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them. Chronicling three generations of an island family from 1916 to the 1970s, Land of Love and Drowning is a novel of love and magic, set against the emergence of Saint Thomas into the modern world. Uniquely imagined, with echoes of Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, and the author’s own Caribbean family history, the story is told in a language and rhythm that evoke an entire world and way of life and love. Following the Bradshaw family through sixty years of fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, love affairs, curses, magical gifts, loyalties, births, deaths, and triumphs, Land of Love and Drowning is a gorgeous, vibrant debut by an exciting, prizewinning young writer.
“Oddný Eir is an authentic author, philosopher and mystic. She weaves together diaries and fiction. She is the writer I feel can best express the female psyche of now and has bridged the gap between rural Iceland and Western philosophy. A true pioneer!!!!!!!!” —Björk The winner of the Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize in 2012, Land of Love and Ruins is the debut novel by a daring new voice in international fiction: Oddný Eir. Written in the form of a diary but with fantastical linguistic verve, the narrator sets out on a universal quest: to find a place to belong—and a way of being in the world. Paradoxically, her longing to settle down drives her to embark on all kinds of journeys, physical and mental, through time and space, in order to find answers to questions that concern not only her personally, but also the whole of humankind. She explores various modes of living, ponders different types of relationships and contemplates her bond with her family, land and nation; trying to find a balance between companionship and independence, movement and stability, past, present, and future. An enchanting blend of autobiography, diary, philosophical inquiry, and fantasy, Land of Love and Ruins is a richly imagined and utterly unique book about being human in the modern world.
Caregiver Shouse celebrates spiritual and practical lessons learned on her unscripted yet rewarding journey with her mother through Alzheimer's disease.
"Instructional, humorous, and intriguing anecdotes on land and real estate purchase, sale, conservation and management. Chilling warnings of International, Federal, State and local grabs for your real estate and property rights; Agenda 21, Smart-Growth, Regionalism, the EPA and FDIC-not the friends of land and real estate owners. This is an absolutely unique, highly controversial digest of secrets shared by an expert with a forty-two year, 1.5 billion dollar plus career in land. You will laugh, you will frown and you will shake your head in disbelief. These real-life stories, about successes and failures, are packed with essential truths and valuable instruction. Spiritual and financial lessons gleaned from all facets of land, and land-based real estate transactions, regardless of size, use, or location-from one-third of an acre to thousands. Today's uncertain climate and unstable economic times make these professional secrets invaluable-purchase, sale, value, tax benefit, banking systems, and even the darker facets of federal and state attempts at control-everything is covered here-affording you the opportunity to use the tempest to your advantage. Are you an owner of land or real estate of any size, type or location? A wanna-be owner searching for an inflation safeguard? A haven? Lifestyle change? Security? Nostalgic for the rural roots of your youth? Tax Advantage? Spiritual connection? Family legacy? Forced to sell? These volumes will instruct, entertain, and open your eyes to the joys, and the dangers. The book studies many previously taboo, or ignored subjects you need to know-all critical to your enjoyment of, and profit from, your land and real estate: Agenda 21-The global grab for all private property rights.Mammoth guaranteed real estate profits to banks-all from YOUR pocket and your real estate values. Why your banker says no-what's really happening behind the vault doors. This ain't your mama's appraisal-the rules have changed. When it's time for the seller to sign the dotted line-forget price-let's talk net. Looking under the rocks-due diligence and the "PPPPP Rule" can save a wreck. The government is not here to help you-and it might be on purpose. Buying and selling smart-the silver lining in an age of upheaval. Conservation Easements-get paid to do the right thing-but be careful! Based on the experience and insider knowledge of a fourth-generation land and cattleman, realtor and #1 bestselling, multiple award winning author, Reid Lance Rosenthal's career spans multiple states, three countries and two continents. Reid's first non-fiction work is drawn from over five thousand transactions and laced with true anecdotes of the good, bad and ugly with no-holds-barred, real time, hard-hitting facts-and must know warnings-critical to your heart, your wallet and the future of your property rights. The associated CD/DVD workbook, Green for Green, coming in 2014, will be loaded with graphs, charts, checklists, unique contract provisions, and actual, highly unusual, but proven deal structures (many developed by the author). Land for Love and Money tells all-the good, bad and ugly-of land and land related residential and other improvements and operations. Balm for your heart, enhancement of your wallet, protection of your future, land and real estate-the foundations of freedom-for soul, for security, for you."
A moving and deeply personal excavation of Indigenous beauty and passion in a suffering world The novel Jonny Appleseed established Joshua Whitehead as one of the most exciting and important new literary voices on Turtle Island, winning both a Lambda Literary Award and Canada Reads 2021. In Making Love with the Land, his first nonfiction book, Whitehead explores the relationships between body, language, and land through creative essay, memoir, and confession. In prose that is evocative and sensual, unabashedly queer and visceral, raw and autobiographical, Whitehead writes of an Indigenous body in pain, coping with trauma. Deeply rooted within, he reaches across the anguish to create a new form of storytelling he calls “biostory”—beyond genre, and entirely sovereign. Through this narrative perspective, Making Love with the Land recasts mental health struggles and our complex emotional landscapes from a nefarious parasite on his (and our) well-being to kin, even a relation, no matter what difficulties they present to us. Whitehead ruminates on loss and pain without shame or ridicule but rather highlights waypoints for personal transformation. Written in the aftermath of heartbreak, before and during the pandemic, Making Love with the Land illuminates this present moment in which both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are rediscovering old ways and creating new ones about connection with and responsibility toward each other and the land. Intellectually audacious and emotionally compelling, Whitehead shares his devotion to the world in which we live and brilliantly—even joyfully—maps his experience on the land that has shaped stories, histories, and bodies from time immemorial.
The Linthorne family settle in the untilled farmland of Ohio in 1866--a man who could turn raw earth into prosperity--but could not know the love of his sons; a beautiful woman who sacrifices her feelings for the sake of her family; and four children who fulfill destinies far different from their parents' dreams.
This is Henri Nouwen's personal account of a pilgrimage to Santiago Atitlan, a Mayan town in the highlands of Guatemala. It was there that an American priest, Father Stanley Rother, was murdered by a death squad in the parish where he served. In traveling to Santiago Nouwen hoped to learn more about this modern martyr about the faith that drew him there, and the love that held him in place, even when his life was threatened.
A family history of surpassing beauty and power: Ian Buruma’s account of his grandparents’ enduring love through the terror and separation of two world wars During the almost six years England was at war with Nazi Germany, Winifred and Bernard Schlesinger, Ian Buruma’s grandparents, and the film director John Schlesinger's parents, were, like so many others, thoroughly sundered from each other. Their only recourse was to write letters back and forth. And write they did, often every day. In a way they were just picking up where they left off in 1918, at the end of their first long separation because of the Great War that swept Bernard away to some of Europe’s bloodiest battlefields. The thousands of letters between them were part of an inheritance that ultimately came into the hands of their grandson, Ian Buruma. Now, in a labor of love that is also a powerful act of artistic creation, Ian Buruma has woven his own voice in with theirs to provide the context and counterpoint necessary to bring to life, not just a remarkable marriage, but a class, and an age. Winifred and Bernard inherited the high European cultural ideals and attitudes that came of being born into prosperous German-Jewish émigré families. To young Ian, who would visit from Holland every Christmas, they seemed the very essence of England, their spacious Berkshire estate the model of genteel English country life at its most pleasant and refined. It wasn’t until years later that he discovered how much more there was to the story. At its heart, Their Promised Land is the story of cultural assimilation. The Schlesingers were very British in the way their relatives in Germany were very German, until Hitler destroyed that option. The problems of being Jewish and facing anti-Semitism even in the country they loved were met with a kind of stoic discretion. But they showed solidarity when it mattered most. As the shadows of war lengthened again, the Schlesingers mounted a remarkable effort, which Ian Buruma describes movingly, to rescue twelve Jewish children from the Nazis and see to their upkeep in England. Many are the books that do bad marriages justice; precious few books take readers inside a good marriage. In Their Promised Land, Buruma has done just that; introducing us to a couple whose love was sustaining through the darkest hours of the century. Look for Ian's new book, A Tokyo Romance, in March, 2018.
Ninaanibaa's heart belonged to Hashké Yił Naabaah (The Warrior Who Fights with Anger). She loved him for protecting his awee (babies), K'e(kinship), Naabeeho (Navajo people) and Dinétah (land). Hashke Yił Naabaah is summoned on a pursuit to restore peace and harmony to Dinétah. Nínááníbaa' gently placed her hand over her heart and wondered if her own heart was prepared to never feel love again. She stopped to think about life without love, the kind of love that her husband showered upon her. Leaving their sacred land was a painful decision forced upon them but Hashké Yił Naabaah and Nínááníbaa always relied on their love, prayers, and kinship in overcoming hardship, loneliness, and suffering. Will they escape the shackles of war and reunite with their children within the four sacred mountains of Dietah?
'Beasts of a Little Land is a stunning achievement’ TLS 'Spectacular' Lisa See, author of The Island of Sea Women 'I loved it' Brandon Hobson, author of The Removed 'Unforgettable' Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, author of The Mountains Sing An epic story of love and war, set during the turbulent decades of Korea's fight for independence It is 1917, and Korea is under Japanese occupation; the country is yet to be divided into north and south. With the threat of famine looming, a young girl named Jade is sold by her family to Miss Silver's courtesan school in cosmopolitan Pyongyang, an act of desperation that will cement her place in the lowest social class. But the city's days as a haven are numbered. Jade flees to Seoul where she forms a deep friendship with an orphan boy called JungHo, who scrapes together a living begging on the streets. As Jade becomes a sought-after performer with unexpected romantic prospects, JungHo is swept up in the revolutionary fight for independence. Soon, Jade must decide between following her own ambitions or risking everyone for the one she loves. From the perfumed chambers of the courtesan school to the glamorous cafés of a modernising Seoul, the unforgettable characters of Beasts of a Little Land unveil a world where friends become enemies and enemies become saviours, where heroes are persecuted and beasts take many shapes.
