My Father S Rifle

A young Kurd comes of age in a war-torn land. This beautiful, spare narrative tells of the life of a boy named Azad--in fact the author, a Kurdish filmmaker--as he grows to manhood in Iraq during the 1960s and 1970s. Azad is born into a vibrant village culture, to a family that is proud of its Kurdish past and hopes for a free Kurdish future. He loves his mother's orchard, his cousin's stunt pigeons, his father's old Czech rifle, his brother who is fighting in the mountains. But before he is even of school age, Azad has experienced strafing and bombing; he watches as friends and neighbors are assassinated; and he sees his father humiliated when he tries to get food for his starving family. Forced into a refugee camp in Iran for years, his family realizes, on their return, that Saddam Hussein and his regime are destroying the autonomy he had promised their people. In a burst of adolescent impatience, Azad briefly runs off to the mountains to fight for Kurdish liberty, like his brother. But Azad has also discovered art--drawings, poetry, film--and he senses that he must find his own way to advance the Kurdish cause. My Father's Rifle ends with his heartbreaking departure from his parents and flight across the Syrian border to freedom. Stunning in its unadorned intensity, My Father's Rifle is a moving portrait of a boy who embraces the land and culture he loves, even as he leaves them.

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.

In this intimate memoir, Yigal Allon shares recollections of his father, a proud pioneer-farmer in Kfar Tavor in the 1920s-30s who retired in Ginosar, the kibbutz co-founded by his son Yigal, and how his father’s personality and life in Jewish settlements in the Galilee before the establishment of the State of Israel shaped his own life. “The father thought to name the son ‘Yigael,’ which means ‘He will be redeemed,’ but decided that was too passive a name, and chose instead ‘Yigal,’ which means ‘He will redeem.’ The Russian‐Jewish farmer’s son became a watchman, a British policeman, member of a kibbutz, a leader of the ragtag 1948 liberation war, a scholar, a major general and Israel’s deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs. This book, Yigal Allon’s act of homage to his father, shows a public man turning inward. He has no political argument to make, unless the word of his father about Mount Tabor makes a declaration of intention about the land of Israel: ‘Maybe there are others more beautiful, but none is just as beautiful.’... a memoir, both discreet and revealing, by an important public man.” — Herbert Gold, The New York Times

I wrote this book in the hope that everybody could share the memories of my father and have a glimpse of the alternative lifestyle to those who lived in the towns and cities at that time. Follow the journey of my father's humble upbringing in the wilds of Norfolk in the thirties and forties amidst nature's playground. I'm sure you will smile and chuckle as you turn the pages and follow the life path of my father, the mischievous boy, turning into the most respected gamekeeper I know. Those of you who grew up in similar backgrounds may recognise the hardships and difficult days, along with the sense of freedom and exploration of that time, which had very few rules and regulations. This book may awaken your own memories of when the countryside was pure, untouched and full of life.

“I had intended this to be the story of my father, an ordinary man living in an extraordinary turbulent half century, which shaped his life and subsequently mine. However, when researching my father’s life, I realise what an extraordinary life my mother had also lived and I want to incorporate her own tale. This is a story that also belongs to my sister and me and tells how we came to be the adults we now are.” This book chronicles the family history of Angela South’s father, John Louis Salter. It starts with his army career, at 14 years old, and how he was posted at 15 to Hong Kong and Mauritius. In WW1, he received the DCM – Distinguished Conduct Medal – and returned home in 1918, with a French bride, Albertine Marie. John left the army in 1925, qualifying as a civil servant despite his lack of education. He settled with his wife in southern England, during the 1920s and 30s. In 1937, Albertine Marie was admitted to a mental asylum for the remainder of her life, due to mental instability. During WW2, he worked in Whitehall and in 1945 was posted to Berlin, where he met Angela’s mother, Christa, who was 20 years old at the time. They returned to England together in 1947, where she studied English and secretarial skills so she could take over as the family bread-winner. John and Christa married in 1951, after the birth of Angela and her younger sister, Karin. My Father's and Mother's Century delves into Angela’s childhood, through the 1950s and 60s, in her somewhat unusual family, and reveals how it impacted on herself and Karin. The book will appeal to fans of family history, biographies and family history.

Derek's lifelong work is about to be sold to pornographers for a lot of money. His wife has left him, for that and other reasons, and he's having a hard time keeping existential focus. Into this maelstrom, flies a package from his mother that contains his father's account of his experiences in the European theater of World War II. As he reads about his father's war, while struggling with the business deal and its ramifications for his idea of himself, he begins to expand his understanding not only of who his father was and the character of his country, but also of the ebb and flow of the seemingly conscious force of war. All of which comes into focused during one terrifying night of the rape of a girl.

“Between fish, my father and I, two men who are as comfortable with each other’s voice as we are with each other’s silences, talk about the purpose of things, and how everything fits into the overall design.” This book is like no memoir you’ve ever read. Paul Rath writes with the soul of a poet, his prose alive with vibrant images and metaphors that capture the raw beauty and challenges of fishing for white fish in the frigid November air – “when the wind takes us into her cold mouth, and crunches us between her teeth. Her cold makes our eyes freeze – until they feel like stones, frozen in their sockets of mud ...” Yet this no mere fish story. As much as this book is about fishing, it is even more about relationships. Fishing with My Fathers explores the deep bonds that form between men of the earth, between men and the land and the water and the creatures that feed their spirits. Rath, the eldest son of a Lutheran pastor, pays homage to his father and tribute to the men who shaped and challenged him, even as he claimed his own space and place in their lineage. With wonderful humour and genuine sensitivity, he regales the reader with tales of his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, as well as of his mentors – of the men who taught him how to grow up, how to control his emotions, how to work, how to grow his spirit, how to love, as well as how to fish.

This story is told from a song a father composed and sung to his son, the author, when he was young. The story is set in the days of old where man and animals could talk and understood each other. Alegeli (Rat), Dzakpata (Snake), and Zangbetor (a spirit) are stuck in a pit and on the verge of death. They are rescued by Klogo, a poor hunter, and all three promise to help the hunter one day. Alegeli comes to Klogo with a pot of gold, which unknown to Klogo, was stolen from the chief’s palace. He becomes rich overnight and becomes the talk of the village; some said he had acquired blood money, while others said he had inherited a fortune somewhere. Sakpli, the village drunk and gossip, reports to the palace that Klogo had stolen the chief’s gold. Aligeli, Dzakpata, and Zangbetor have to come up with a plan save the hunter…