Between Two Shores

The daughter of a Mohawk mother and French father in 1759 Montreal, Catherine Duval finds it is easier to remain neutral in a world that is tearing itself apart. Content to trade with both the French and the British, Catherine is pulled into the fray against her wishes when her British ex- fiance, Samuel Crane, is taken prisoner by her father. Samuel asks her to help him escape, claiming he has information that could help end the war. Peace appeals to Catherine, but helping the man who broke her heart does not. She delays . . . until attempts on Samuel's life convince her he's in mortal danger. Against her better judgment she helps him flee by river, using knowledge of the landscape to creep ever closer to freedom. Their time together rekindles feelings she thought long buried, and danger seems to hound their every mile. She's risked becoming a traitor by choosing a side, but will the decision cost her even more than she anticipated?

This is a story which begins in California and ends in China. It is a detective tale with a subtle love interest. Victor Lin, a Chinese-American died in mysterious circumstances on a trip to the Thousand Island Lake south of the city of Hangzhou. His wife Anne Gavin, an Irish-American, went to China to find out what really happened. In the course of her investigation, she teamed up with David Han, an academic from Hong Kong who also lost his sister in the same "accident". As the story unfolds, the reader is treated to an exploration of the Chinese mind torn between two cultures - the native Chinese culture and the culture of the West. At one level, this is a story about corruption, obsession, and the quest for closure. But running through the story is the soul-searching of David Han and the identity crisis he was going through. In the course of telling the story, Between Two Shores takes the reader behind the shroud that hides the Chinese persona and reveals the fears, aspirations, frustrations and underlying beliefs of the Chinese people. It splits open the archetypal "Chinese characteristics" to reveal the deep-seated motivations which underpin Chinese behavior. It is a very revealing book and goes to depths never before explored.

Since the late 1960s Tongans have been leaving their islands in large numbers and settling in many different nations. Tongans Overseas is a timely look at their settlement experiences as they relate to cultural identity, particularly among the younger generations raised outside Tonga. What does being Tongan mean to these young people? Why do some proudly proclaim and cherish their Tongan identities while others remain ambivalent, confused, or indifferent? Helen Morton Lee's innovative research offers insights into these and many other questions, revealing the complexities of identity construction in the context of migration and the varied ways in which individuals seek a sense of belonging. Using both traditional ethnographic fieldwork and newly popular Internet discussion forums, where young Tongans speak their minds and describe their experiences, Lee has produced the most comprehensive study of Tongan migrants to date. Throughout the book diasporic Tongans speak eloquently about their lives, and case studies of families and individuals bring the analysis to life. Lee explores tensions within overseas communities, especially the intergenerational conflicts that are contributing to the alienation of many young Tongans today.

When a young American Buddhist monk can no longer bear the pop-psychology, sexual intrigue, and free-flowing peanut butter that he insists pollute his spiritual community, he sets out for Japan on an archetypal journey to find True Zen. Arriving at an austere Japanese monastery and meeting a fierce old Zen Master, he feels confirmed in his suspicion that the Western Buddhist approach is a spineless imitation of authentic spiritual effort. However, over the course of a year and a half of bitter initiations, relentless meditation and labor, intense cold, brutal discipline, insanity, overwhelming lust, and false breakthroughs, he grows disenchanted with the Asian model as well. Two Shores of Zen weaves together scenes from Japanese and American Zen to offer a timely, compelling contribution to the ongoing conversation about Western Buddhism's stark departures from Asian traditions. How far has Western Buddhism come from its roots, or indeed how far has it fallen? www.ShoresOfZen.com

From the bestselling author of Above All Things and inspired by real events, this powerful novel follows two families brought together to reckon with what it means to make amends—for historic wrongs and the wrongs we commit against the ones we love. For readers of Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things, Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, Esi Edugyan's Washington Black, Joan Thomas's Five Wives, and Michael Christie's Greenwood. On a small island in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, the Tabés are a family mourning the death of their son in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone, while worrying over the looming departure of another. Desperate to find a way to change their fates, David Tabé places a phone call halfway around the world to the Stewarts, a family bound to his own through a fraught connection in the distant past—their ancestors met on the island two hundred years earlier, with calamitous results. In Toronto, the Stewarts are themselves locked in mourning after the accidental drowning of their youngest son. When Michelle Stewart receives David’s invitation to participate in a reconciliation ceremony to put the spirits of their respective ancestors to rest, she accepts in a desperate effort to save herself and her family. As the ceremony approaches, the Tabés and the Stewarts will uncover their shared losses and failings, their fragile hopes for what a better future might hold, and the wounds that stand in the way of freeing themselves from the legacy of past betrayals. Heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, and morally complex, The Sea Between Two Shores immerses us in the lives of two families connected as much by their desire for healing as by the actions of their ancestors. It is an extraordinary meditation on the complications of history, the possibilities for redemption, and the meaning of the stories we tell ourselves.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Drift from Two Shores" by Bret Harte. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Hannah examines whether love and commitment are enough to sustain a marriage when two people who have put their individual dreams on ice get a chance to defrost them . . . in fast-moving prose punctuated by snappy asides.”—People Elizabeth and Jackson Shore married young, raised two daughters, and weathered the storms of youth as they built a family. From a distance, their lives look picture perfect. But after the girls leave home, Jack and Elizabeth quietly drift apart. When Jack accepts a wonderful new job, Elizabeth puts her own needs aside to follow him across the country. Then tragedy turns Elizabeth’s world upside down. In the aftermath, she questions everything about her life—her choices, her marriage, even her long-forgotten dreams. In a daring move that shocks her husband, friends, and daughters, she lets go of the woman she has become—and reaches out for the woman she wants to be.

This “engrossing” (The Wall Street Journal) national bestseller and true “heartbreaking tale of tragedy and redemption” (Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers) reveals how a discovered diary—found during a brutal World War II battle—changed our war-torn society’s perceptions of Japan. May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces tirelessly fought in a yearlong campaign, with both sides suffering thousands of casualties. Included in this number was a Japanese medic whose war diary would lead a Silver Star–winning American soldier to find solace for his own tortured soul. The doctor’s name was Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, a Hiroshima native who had graduated from college and medical school in California. He loved America, but was called to enlist in the Imperial Army of his native Japan. Heartsick, wary of war, yet devoted to Japan, Tatsuguchi performed his duties and kept a diary of events as they unfolded—never knowing that it would be found by an American soldier named Dick Laird. Laird, a hardy, resilient underground coal miner, enlisted in the US Army to escape the crushing poverty of his native Appalachia. In a devastating mountainside attack in Alaska, Laird was forced to make a fateful decision, one that saved him and his comrades, but haunted him for years. Tatsuguchi’s diary was later translated and distributed among US soldiers. It showed the common humanity on both sides of the battle. But it also ignited fierce controversy that is still debated today. After forty years, Laird was determined to return it to the family and find peace with Tatsuguchi’s daughter, Laura Tatsuguchi Davis. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mark Obmascik “writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view—perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood” (Helen Thorpe, author of Soldier Girls).