Grattan And Me

Grattan Fletcher and Suck Ryle are on the road, risking their dignity and occasionally their lives to renew the civic spirit of Ireland. Grattan is an idealistic, ageing civil servant who has enlisted Ryle, a skeptic prone to violent temper, in a quixotic quest to make a better Irish future for Grattan’s granddaughter. Along the way, they encounter politicians, protesters, and power brokers, some of whom are fascinated and others only flummoxed by Grattan’s wide sympathies and wild philosophical musings. In sprawling comic fashion, Grattan and Me addresses countless contemporary political, economic and ecological problems, allowing no person or institution to remain safe from ridicule.

FINALIST FOR THE 2022 LA TIMES ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/HEMMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. "A wonderful, immersive debut novel . . . in [Thomas] Grattan’s hands, life’s joys are magnetic." --Patrick Nathan, The New York Times Book Review An extraordinary family saga following a mother and two teens as they navigate a new life in East Germany Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Beate Haas, who defected from East Germany as a child, is notified that her parents’ abandoned mansion is available for her to reclaim. Newly divorced and eager to escape her bleak life in upstate New York, where she moved as an adult, she arrives with her two teenagers to discover a city that has become an unrecognizable ghost town. The move fractures the siblings’ close relationship, as Michael, free to be gay, takes to looting empty houses and partying with wannabe anarchists, while Adela, fascinated with the horrors of the Holocaust, buries herself in books and finds companionship in a previously unknown cousin. Over time, the town itself changes—from dismantled city to refugee haven and neo-Nazi hotbed, and eventually to a desirable seaside resort town. In the midst of that change, two episodes of devastating, fateful violence come to define the family forever. Moving seamlessly through decades and between the thoughts and lives of several unforgettable characters, Thomas Grattan’s spellbinding novel is a multigenerational epic that illuminates what it means to leave home, and what it means to return. Masterfully crafted with humor, gorgeous prose, and a powerful understanding of history and heritage, The Recent East is the profoundly affecting story of a family upended by displacement and loss, and the extraordinary debut of an empathetic and ambitious storyteller.

What all of mankind have learned in the past about creation is the way that existence isn't -- a paradox! Awaken and realize that all of mankind will create their "body for Ascension," whether they accomplish this now or later, and that this is not the exclusive domain of Christ or Buddha or many others who have ascended -- this is your birthright. You are not relegated to worshipping those who have already done this very basic initiation called Ascension. Christ and Buddha would be the first to acknowledge that they are just beginners on their eternal journey. When mankind lifts the veils of their unworthiness and recognize that the are the Sons of God, that there is divine equality and no one is greater than another, then you will have begun our journey in the way that it was intended. In your near future your Planetary Hierarchy will release the world from theology, ecclesiasticism and the wrathful Jehovah and return humanity to its rightful journey into spiritualizing matter, not worshipping it! The Mahatma is for those who are motivated to search for the answers that can respond to their mental and spiritual bodies. In the past, mankind?s choices of beliefs and religions have supported only the emotional body and the darker, material side of life. And truly, if one is going to remain on Earth, very drastic shifts of consciousness will be required to have mankind remain in Earth?s new fourth-dimensional reality. No matter how contrary to your current beliefs, this book contains methods for creating your spiritual Lightbody for Ascension, and it also explains your eternal journey in a way that was never before available to mankind.

This is a story of people you might know. Some kindly men, a few hysterical women, sons who cause exasperation... It is a story of halted dreams, of new dreams dreamed, of love and loyalty, and love and disloyalty. Our Kind of Music follows one man’s journey along a highway initially perceived to be clear of obstacles but which, inevitably, presents hurdles he could not anticipate. It is also the story of his son, whose bravado leads him along a different path to the soul-searching that this ultimately entails. Set against shifting backgrounds – some as exotic as the Seychelles and Tahiti, some as safely domestic as New England’s Vermont and old England’s Dorset, and others as vibrant as Sydney and New York, this story is rich in personality, fostering an innate knowledge of who the characters are and how they feel. Not all are liked, but some are so deeply loved that they linger in the senses, and by the end you might almost expect to bump into them, like old friends, on Main Street. This novel is set over four decades, starting in 1937 and culminating in early 1982, less driven by the events of those years than merely touched by them, just as world events are experienced by ordinary lives. But always, always, running through those years, there is music… Our Kind of Music is a book about ordinary people attempting to lead ordinary lives (not always successfully), and though it is not without doses of light trauma, readers will discover a strong sense of place all around the world, and a nostalgic theme of music running throughout.

Two Mexican brothers, Jose Luis and Francisco Salazar, and their families migrate to the United States shortly after the U.S. entry into World War II. The story depicts their struggles as they come to grips with a new, often hostile environment. Later, the family prominently figures in two of the most tragic, yet stirring incidents in Mexican-American history. The first involves the all-Hispanic rifle company that as part of the Texas Volunteer Division lost its colors at the Battle of the Rapido River in Italy during the Second World War, when 156 badly-mangled Hispanic soldiers were ordered to cross the Rapido River against a known German force of more than 3000 men. Only 23 U.S. soldiers came back, and of those, ten would later die. Yet before the war was over, that unit would win more medals for bravery than almost any other rifle company in all of American history. The second incident came in the early 1950's, when some 300 Mexican-Americans, African-Americans and Filipino migrants went on strike in the harvest fields of South Texas. Though the movement was washed away by the winds of history, within the seeds of that defeat were the victories that came a generation later in the San Joaquin Valley of central California. It is in California that a new generation of Salazars at last succeed in fulfilling the dream of enriching their lives in a soul-satisfying way.