Comrade Inmate

Destiny bundles Fred in jail, in the company of a former judge, a Member of Parliament, a priest, a doctor, and other pillars of society. The author is a well-established novelist and he delivers a rendition of the scintillating encounters and escapades of the various characters when they were free - some of the encounters being the reason they are now together in jail.

This title was first published in 2003. The "Red Mafia" in Russia have become the subject of increasing international interest and considerable misinterpretation. After well-received editions in Russian, French and Italian, Anton Oleinik's study of Russian prisons, in which he explores the social roots of organized crime in post-Soviet societies, is now published in English. This English edition includes a postscript on the Moscow terrorist crisis of 2002. Oleinik's analysis reveals prison society as a mirror of broader Russian society - characterized by the absence of the state as an organizer of social practices. He builds on this to make a central distinction between two types of societies - the modern "large" society and the "small" society, like Russia, that has only been partially modernized, and in which the world of everyday life, experiences and relationships remains entirely separated from the official aims of modernization and efficiency. Oleinik is interested in the void between these two separate worlds, a void he sees being filled in Russia by the Mafia.

This is the invigorating, spine-tingling, true story of Sicko; a once-upon-a-time homeless kid bred in the west Bronx. Sicko’s life details the timeline of a lawless adolescent mentally trapped within the limits of poverty. A gifted Indo-African, adapting to his environment year after year, to the extent of adding to the ugly statistics of high school dropouts in the region. “Shaking that hood mentality wasn't easy. The streets was all I knew. I was conditioned to embrace poverty as home. Follow me as I take you through some unbelievable conditions and hardships. But keep in mind that although it may seem as if I enjoyed my part in the despair, I was never comfortable there. I just couldn't seem to find a way out.” At the young age of sixteen, Sicko merged with a sibling to form a hip-hop group called the “Darkside Mob”. Together, they inked their first recording deal and went on to travel the states. Performing alongside major industry artists, their fan base expanded quickly. Success seemed only a few events away. Suddenly, a stream of incidences occurred that landed them right back on the streets of the Bronx. Along the endless violent path they chose to resume, he and his brothers took a turn for the worse. Burdens only got heavier. Encounters came in the form of war scars and prison threats. That’s up until the authors desire for change. A transformation that was far from easy. In this heartfelt testimony, you'll be walked through drastic measures, to better understand the damaging of a childhood that affected one’s adulthood. You’ll relate to the everyday occurrences that keeps humanity divided: racial encounters, segregation, discrimination, street wars, financial barriers, domestic disputes and so much more. Then we’ll transition to the mindset of an entrepreneur. “See, I was raised in the sour apple, where I’ve savored my bitter share. So, prepare to receive a real-life account of how various negative pieces can be gathered and repaired. Prepare to be encouraged. This is my life… Kwame King

The series Studies on Modern Orient provides an overview of religious, political and social phenomena in modern and contemporary Muslim societies. The volumes do not only take into account Near and Middle Eastern countries, but also explore Islam and Muslim culture in other regions of the world, for example, in Europe and the US. The series Studies on Modern Orient was founded in 2010 by Klaus Schwarz Verlag.

The term 'recent' or 'new' covers novels and some short fiction published between 1980 and 1995, a period characterized by growing pessimism about the state of affairs in both East and West Africa. The section on South Africa deals more narrowly with the 1985-95 watershed marking the end of official apartheid and the beginning of reconstruction. The three sections aim at giving a coherent picture of the main directions in production, highlighting three main centres of interest, Nigeria, Kenya, and the Republic of South Africa, although some novelists from neighbouring countries are also considered (such as Kofi Awoonor from Ghana, Nuruddin Farah from Somalia, and M.G. Vassanji and Abdulrazak Gurnah from Tanzania). The evaluations conducted in the three sections lead to the emergence of a number of common themes, in particular the writers' predilection for topicality, the role of the past, and the controversy over the idea of the nation. Central themes also include the role of women in fending for themselves, both in rural and in urban environments. A further major theme is the role of the past (the Nigerian civil war; the Mau Mau period in Kenya; the revisiting of slavery; the refurbishing of myth; the questioning of historical reconstructions). The preoccupation of the West, East, and South African novel with the idea and ideal of the 'nation' is explored, particularly in the context of migrancy, hybridity, and transculturalism characterizing the anglophone diaspora. The volume is aimed at literary scholars and students and, more generally, readers of fiction seeking an introduction to contemporary literary developments in various parts of sub-Saharan anglophone Africa. No categorical distinction is drawn between 'popular' and 'high' literature. Though still selective and not intended as an exhaustive catalogue, the present survey covers a large number of titles. Rather than resorting to broad and ultimately somewhat abstract thematic categories, the contributors endeavour to keep control over this mass of material by applying a 'micro-thematic' taxonomy. This approach, well-tested in the tradition of literary studies within France, groups works analytically and evaluatively in terms of such categories as actional motifs, plot-frames, and sociologically relevant locations or topics, thereby enabling a clearer focus on the dynamics of preoccupation and tendency that form networks of affinity across the fiction produced in the period surveyed.

In stark contrast to the widespread preoccupation with the wartime looting of priceless works of art, BoÅ1⁄4ena Shallcross focuses on the meaning of ordinary objects -- pots, eyeglasses, shoes, clothing, kitchen utensils -- tangible vestiges of a once-lived reality, which she reads here as cultural texts. Shallcross delineates the ways in which Holocaust objects are represented in Polish and Polish-Jewish texts written during or shortly after World War II. These representational strategies are distilled from the writings of Zuzanna Ginczanka, WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw Szlengel, Zofia NaÅ‚kowska, CzesÅ‚aw MiÅ‚osz, Jerzy Andrzejewski, and Tadeusz Borowski. Combining close readings of selected texts with critical interrogations of a wide range of philosophical and theoretical approaches to the nature of matter, Shallcross's study broadens the current discourse on the Holocaust by embracing humble and overlooked material objects as they were perceived by writers of that time.