Land Of My Fathers

Return to the Land of My Fathers is an inspiring novel that takes readers from pre-World War II Finland to modern day America. Ilmari grew up as a fisherman at a lake in Karelia, in Eastern Finland and bordering Russia. There he had a happy life with his growing family until World War II changed everything. His family was forcefully evacuated with 422,000 other Karelians. Ilmari's son, Aleksi, was taken as a prisoner of war and spent several hard years at a labor camp in Siberia, before serving the Soviet intelligence, and then becoming a gold medal candidate in shooting at the Olympic Games in Helsinki. Aleksi's goal was to defect during the Olympics, which resulted in incredible adventures throughout Finland, including meeting his future wife. Ilmari started a new career as a painter. Through his art, he expressed the longing for the Land of His Fathers, his beloved Karelia. He became a renowned artist, later finding inspiration also in the beautiful seashore landscape on Long Island. Aleksi became a literature professor and he reflects on the evacuation process from Karelia, comparing it to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the age of ninety-five, Ilmari has the possibility to return to the Land of His Fathers with his grown-up children and grandchildren. He reflects on the Return to the Land of My Fathers. Was it an illusion or for real? Author Bio: Kenneth Lundstrom is a molecular biologist working in the area of cancer therapy. Originally from Helsinki, Finland, he now resides near Lausanne, Switzerland. He has previously published Taxi Trips to Remember or Forget, a travel memoir, and is now writing his next book. http: //sbpra.com/KennethLundstrom

In 1960, renowned Nevada writer Robert Laxalt moved himself and his family to a small Basque village in the French Pyrenees. The son of Basque emigrants, Laxalt wanted to learn as much as he could about the ancient and mysterious people from which he was descended and about the country from which his parents came. Thanks to his Basque surname and a wide network of family connections, Laxalt was able to penetrate the traditional reserve of the Basques in a way that outsiders rarely can. In the process, he gained rare insight into the nature of the Basques and the isolated, beautiful mountain world where they have lived for uncounted centuries. Based on Laxalt’s personal journals of this and a later sojourn in 1965, The Land of My Fathers is a moving record of a people and their homeland. Through Laxalt’s perceptive eyes and his wife Joyce’s photographs, we observe the Basques’ market days and festivals, join their dove hunts and harvests, share their humor and history, their deep sense of nationalism, their abiding pride in their culture and their homes, and discover the profound sources of the Basques’ strength and their endurance as a people. Photography by Joyce Laxalt.

The proud Republic of Liberia was founded in the 19th century with the triumphant return of the freed slaves from America to Africa. Once back ‘home’, however, these AmericoLiberians had to integrate with the resident tribes – who did not want or welcome them. Against a background of French and British colonialists busily carving up Mother Africa, while local tribes were still unashamedly trading in slaves . . . the vulnerable newcomers felt trapped and out of place. Where men should have stood shoulder to shoulder, they turned on each other instead. THE LAND OF MY FATHERS plunges us into this world. But in the midst of turmoil, there is friendship. Edward Richard, a man born into slavery and a preacher by profession, is convinced that the future of Liberia lies in bringing peace amongst the tribes. His mission takes him to the far north, where he meets an extraordinary man, Halay. Edward’s new and dearest friend is ready to sacrifice his own life to protect his country; for the Liberians believe that with Halay’s death, no war will ever threaten their land. A century later, this belief is crushed when war engulfs the land, bearing away with it the descendants of both Edward and Halay.

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