by author, Brett Hilder (2008)
"The focus of the story is the long-distance relationship between Australian author and his Eritrean wife, Sibylla. They met in Eritrea, and this story describes in very impressionistic style his attempts to obtain a visa for her to rejoin him in Australia, or somewhere else in the world where they can be together. The story also describes his travels in Europe, Africa and South America, and recreates his wife's escape from Eritrea across the desert to Sudan, and then on to Cairo. The author uses his wife's situation as the basis for a general meditation on the nature of the world's displaced and disposessed."--Provided by publisher.
Paul V. Long
A collection of 129 photographs by Schwemberger, a lay Franciscan brother in Arizona, of Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo people, as well as other subjects, such as white settlers and churches. Includes a pictorial and narrative record of a Navajo curing and initiation ceremony, and a biographic essay.
Hanna Davidson Pankowsky
On September 27, 1939, after the Nazi invasion, Poland ceased to exist as a nation. Ten-year-old Hanna Davidson's father, Simon, and older brother, Kazik, had been drafted to defend Warsaw. Hanna and her mother, Sophia, found themselves subjected to Hitler's efforts to dehumanize Poland's Jewish population. But when they got word that Simon and Kazik were alive in the Soviet-occupied zone of Poland, Hanna and her mother decided to risk a harrowing escape from Nazi Poland into safer Soviet territory. With only the clothes on their backs, they left their apartment. If the two-percent chance of surviving the crossing were not daunting enough, then the Davidsons' prospects in the Soviet Union should have been. Simon Davidson's capitalist and anti-communist activities in Poland would brand him an undesirable. Worse, he had been born in Russia - escaping years before by fooling Soviet authorities into presuming him dead - and his resurfacing would endanger those members of his family who remained behind. So the Davidsons were compelled to invent and memorize not only their own new identities but also an extended family history. Moreover, avoiding persecution by the Soviet regime entailed maintaining a pretense of allegiance to Stalin. As recounted by Hanna, the Davidsons' journey into the Soviet interior makes for a singular story.
Gail Sheehy
"This is the compelling story of a girl who is more than a survivor. Her struggle from despair to victory demonstrates the power of the human spirit to prevail over life's accidents"--Jacket subtitle.
Emmanuel Jal and Megan Lloyd Davies
In the mid-1980s, Emmanuel Jal was a seven-year-old Sudanese boy, living in a small village. But as Sudan's civil war moved closer, his family moved again and again, seeking peace. Then, one terrible day, Jal was separated from his mother, and later learned she had been killed; his father Simon rose to become a powerful commander in the Christian Sudanese Liberation Army, fighting for the freedom of Sudan. Soon, Jal was conscripted into that army, one of 10,000 child soldiers, and fought through two separate civil wars over nearly a decade. Remarkably, he survived, and was adopted by a British aid worker, beginning the journey that would lead him to music: he recorded and released his own album, including the number one hip-hop single in Kenya, and has gone on to perform with international music stars, and to use his fame to help children like him.--From publisher description.