See You In Paradise

The first substantial collection of short fiction from "a writer with enough electricity to light up the country" (Ann Patchett) "I guess the things that scare you are the things that are almost normal," observes one narrator in this collection of effervescent and often uncanny stories. Drawing on fifteen years of work, See You in Paradise is the fullest expression yet of J. Robert Lennon's distinctive and brilliantly comic take on the pathos and surreality at the heart of American life. In Lennon's America, a portal to another universe can be discovered with surprising nonchalance in a suburban backyard, adoption almost reaches the level of blood sport, and old pals return from the dead to steal your girlfriend. Sexual dysfunction, suicide, tragic accidents, and career stagnation all create surprising opportunities for unexpected grace in this full-hearted and mischievous depiction of those days (weeks, months, years) we all have when things just don't go quite right.

Shares uplifting advice about the virtues of forgiveness, offering strategic and biblically based advice on how to achieve peace and personal fulfillment by letting go of past wrongs.

In life and in death, Jesus’ words were powerful and meaningful. Despite the serious effort and increased pain required for Jesus to speak as he hung on the cross, Jesus spoke seven “final words”—statements that have much to teach us about Jesus, his Father, and ourselves: Father Forgive Them Behold Your Son…Behold Your Mother My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise I Thirst It Is Finished Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit In 24 Hours That Changed the World, Adam Hamilton took us on a Lenten journey through the last day of Jesus' life. Now in this inspiring follow-up book, Hamilton explores these final words as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of those who stood near the cross. Each chapter begins with the biblical account followed by a first-person story as might have been told from the viewpoint of one of the characters at the cross. Then the chapter explores the meaning of Jesus’ dying words for our lives today. Following the last statement, a postscript recounts the words Jesus spoke following his resurrection, including what truly were the final words Jesus spoke while walking this earth. Join the crowd now and experience the final words from the cross. Final Words from the Cross offers six chapters/sessions plus a postscript chapter/session, so that classes have the option of a seventh session on Easter Sunday.

The book is a fiction; it deals with Legal, political, economic and social ills plaguing most developing countries that are still grappling with various developmental challenges. The book highlights and satirizes all these ills and challenges facing these countries and proffer solutions to some of them. There are some developing countries especially in Africa where there is failure of leadership. This fuels ethnic, religious and socials upheavals which lead to political instability and even wars. In some of these countries, there is corruption of monumental proportion which slows down economic development and this may eventually lead to other social problems such as poverty, chaos, anarchy etc. The book politely and humorously point out these problems and the way forward. Corruption is a global problem but the book also propounds a theory that corruption in large scale by a political leadership in any country may lead to economic problem that could cause extermination of the poor masses gradually through hunger, preventable and curable diseases and that such corruption should be treated as "massocide" and as crime against humanity by the UNO. The book also highlights the problem of unsuitability of some political arrangement of some developing countries that is also responsible for the political, social and economic problems plaguing them; and the need to have national dialogue to arrive at the best political arrangement which is indeed the foundation to build on. The outcome of such national dialogue should be implemented and use to draft a new constitution. The book humorously highlights the flight of integrity from some of these developing countries due to the bad example from leadership. When corruption is the order of the day and there is impunity in that no one is punished even when caught, it makes many people to join the bandwagon and hell is then let loose on the society. Some lawyers when well paid by corrupt officials; they would do all within their powers and explore legal loopholes and processes to either ensure that such cases drag to eternity in law courts or are never heard. Due to the legal procedure that presume an accused person innocent until convicted in law courts, the corrupt official going through trial in court would be free to pursue his/her political ambition, get elected into any political office and acquire more money to frustrate his/her trial in law court. This book highlights the foregoing too. The book highlights the social ills plaguing many developing countries which reduce most human beings to subsistence level and in such situation; higher human ideals are sacrificed on altar of expediency to survive. Even the zeal to work hard and excel wane in many people as the economic climate favours those with political powers and their cohorts; in such a situation everyone struggles to get to political power through any means. It becomes "a do or die" affair. The book will appeal to the public at large especially those who are interested in finding solutions to the problems affecting the developing countries.

Elegant, brutal, and profound—this magnificent debut captures the grit and glory of modern Hawai'i with breathtaking force and accuracy. In a stunning collection that announces the arrival of an incredible talent, Kristiana Kahakauwila travels the islands of Hawai'i, making the fabled place her own. Exploring the deep tensions between local and tourist, tradition and expectation, façade and authentic self, This Is Paradise provides an unforgettable portrait of life as it’s truly being lived on Maui, Oahu, Kaua'i and the Big Island. In the gut-punch of “Wanle,” a beautiful and tough young woman wants nothing more than to follow in her father’s footsteps as a legendary cockfighter. With striking versatility, the title story employs a chorus of voices—the women of Waikiki—to tell the tale of a young tourist drawn to the darker side of the city’s nightlife. “The Old Paniolo Way” limns the difficult nature of legacy and inheritance when a patriarch tries to settle the affairs of his farm before his death. Exquisitely written and bursting with sharply observed detail, Kahakauwila’s stories remind us of the powerful desire to belong, to put down roots, and to have a place to call home.

Josh expects to find paradise as he sets out for a relaxing trip to Hawaii to join three of his old friends from college, but what if their week in paradise is interrupted in a way that few of us can imagine?

Finally available in the United States, a singular story collection that Time Out declared "unsettlingly brilliant" Astudent's suicide note is not what it seems. A high school football rivalry turns absurd—and deadly. A much-loved cat seems to have been a different animal all along. A pair of identical twins aren't identical at all—or even related. A man finds his own yellowed birth announcement inside a bureau bought at auction. Set in a small upstate New York town, told in a conversational style, Pieces for the Left Hand is a stream of a hundred anecdotes, none much longer than a page. At once funny, bizarre, familiar, and disturbing, these deceptively straightforward tales nevertheless shock and amaze through uncanny coincidence, tragic misunderstanding, strange occurrence, or sudden insight. Unposted letters, unexpected visitors, false memories—in J. Robert Lennon's vision of America, these are the things that decide our fate. Wry and deadpan, powerful and philosophical, these addictive little tales reveal the everyday world as a strange and eerie place.

The most inventive and entertaining novel to date from “a master of the dark arts” (Kelly Link) A modest house in upstate New York. One in the morning. Three people—a couple and their child—hurry out the door, but it’s too late for them. As the virtuosic and terrifying opening scene of Broken River unfolds, a spectral presence seems to be watching with cold and mysterious interest. Soon the house lies abandoned, and years later a new family moves in. Karl, Eleanor, and their daughter, Irina, arrive from New York City in the wake of Karl’s infidelity to start anew. Karl tries to stabilize his flailing art career. Eleanor, a successful commercial novelist, eagerly pivots in a new creative direction. Meanwhile, twelve-year-old Irina becomes obsessed with the brutal murders that occurred in the house years earlier. And, secretly, so does her mother. As the ensemble cast grows to include Louis, a hapless salesman in a carpet warehouse who is haunted by his past, and Sam, a young woman newly reunited with her jailbird brother, the seemingly unrelated crime that opened the story becomes ominously relevant. Hovering over all this activity looms a gradually awakening narrative consciousness that watches these characters lie to themselves and each other, unleashing forces that none of them could have anticipated and that put them in mortal danger. Broken River is a cinematic, darkly comic, and sui generis psychological thriller that could only have been written by J. Robert Lennon.