My Village

Exuberant storytelling full of wry comedy, dark history, and devastating satire—by the celebrated and original author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Say You’re One of Them. From a suspiciously cheap Hell’s Kitchen walk-up, Nigerian editor and winner of a Toni Morrison Publishing Fellowship Ekong Udousoro is about to begin the opportunity of a lifetime: to learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry from its incandescent epicenter. While his sophisticated colleagues meet him with kindness and hospitality, he is soon exposed to a colder, ruthlessly commercial underbelly—callous agents, greedy landlords, boorish and hostile neighbors, and, beneath a superficial cosmopolitanism, a bedrock of white cultural superiority and racist assumptions about Africa, its peoples, and worst of all, its food. Reckoning, at the same time, with the recent history of the devastating and brutal Biafran War, in which Ekong’s people were a minority of a minority caught up in the mutual slaughter of majority tribes, Ekong’s life in New York becomes a saga of unanticipated strife. The great apartment deal wrangled by his editor turns out to be an illegal sublet crawling with bedbugs. The lights of Times Square slide off the hardened veneer of New Yorkers plowing past the tourists. A collective antagonism toward the “other” consumes Ekong’s daily life. Yet in overcoming misunderstandings with his neighbors, Chinese and Latino and African American, and in bonding with his true allies at work and advocating for healing back home, Ekong proves that there is still hope in sharing our stories. Akpan’s prose melds humor, tenderness, and pain to explore the myriad ways that tribalisms define life everywhere, from the villages of Nigeria to the villages within New York City. New York, My Village is a triumph of storytelling and a testament to the life-sustaining power of community across borders and across boroughs.

There is a little village deep in the countryside of Alsace in France. To find it, get off the train at a small station decorated with flowers, and walk down a narrow road between some orchards. In the distance, you'll see the church spire rising above the wheat fields.This is not a made-up village: it really exists. It was the village where Jean-Jacques Waltz, known through his books and drawings as 'Hansi', lived, and it was the place he loved more than any other on earth. At the time he wrote My Village, Alsace was under occupation by Germany following the Franco-Prussian War, and Hansi used his skills as an illustrator to poke gentle fun at the German authorities.The beautiful, colourful and detailed pictures in this book show Alsatian adults and children in their traditional dress, going about their traditional lives in harmony with their surroundings. They are patriotic, kind, and always smiling, despite their difficult circumstances, and they honour the values handed down through the generations. In contrast, the Germans are portrayed as brash and self-indulgent, imposing petty laws on the villagers as well as trying to impose German culture.Hansi's satire, however, is always humorous, and the book is a joy throughout. Sharp-eyed readers will enjoy spotting the subtle references in his illustrations. The text is suitable for children aged from about eight years old, but will equally be appreciated by adults.

I was a thirty-something woman with a husband, a daughter, and a dog...And then, one morning, I found a lump in my right breast, and my life stopped, shifted direction, and became something I could never have imagined. Early one Saturday morning in October, 2004, Diolinda Peterson found a lump in her breast-her worst nightmare after watching her own mother, only five years before, fight the disease and lose her life to cancer. Suddenly, her world was consumed with diagnosis, surgery, and chemotherapy, forcing her to face her own mortality. Fearing that history might repeat itself, she considered the repercussions that her death might have on her husband and young daughter. Throughout this year-long battle, though, she was not alone, but instead supported by family and friends, whom she lovingly referred to as her Village. My Village: A Young Family's Story of Cancer, Love, and Gratitude is a story of hope surpassing incredible fear and loss. As a family, the Petersons forced themselves to name their horror, honor their fear, and reframe their minds and hearts with love and gratitude's power. Courageously written, this memoir constructs a realistic picture of what it feels and looks like for a young woman to have cancer, and it shares how a family coped, survived, and eventually thrived despite their terrifying journey.

The people who built Newgrange were a special people. With their magnificent works they have left their imprints on the sands of time. Their legacy tells us much about them. They were a highly organised neolithic society. They had advanced engineering skills. They had the courage to undertake massve projects. They were skilled in art and astronomy. They had a multi-dimensional view of the cosmos that illuminated their world. They held powerful beliefs. Part of them no doubt still resides deep within ourselves. We need to know them better. We can learn much from them. Ireland is at a cusp at the moment, as it also was in their time. For inspiration we need to look no further than the mounds of Meath. This book will take you inside the minds of those who built Newgrange and help you share their Neolithic imagination, courage and beliefs.

The introduction of Christianity by missionaries in North-East India, without ignoring the positive contribution, failed to provide a sound theological foundation for the people of this region in their quest for identity and liberation. In this publication, the author, a native of the region, investigates the struggle for identity among the tribal people of North-East India and more particularly the Kuki people of Manipur. Exploring the social, cultural, religious and political changes brought to the people of this region the book highlights their real struggle for justice and dignity. Outlining aspects of the Kuki tradition, as well as dialoguing with Dalit and tribal theology the author proposes possible contributions to a local theology that can help in shaping a new sense of identity for the tribal people of North-East India.