Sojourns In The New World

This collection of essays represents a reflective inquiry into the way in which our world is set apart from its past, its present defined and its destiny shaped by technology. The contributors tackle the subject from different perspectives within the fields of philosophy and politics.

A Spiritual Sojourn is an autobiographical collection of poems based on the poet’s life experiences. It records incidents from the poet’s journey through childhood right up to her middle-age years—from being a sick child to becoming a healthy adult. She expresses her struggles, fears, dreams, visions, and her near-death experiences through her lucid poetry. Some of the poems are of a philosophical, spiritual, or devotional nature. Readers will certainly be able to relate to the poet as she relates how she overcomes obstacles and triumphs over the setbacks in her life.

The murders of his beloved sisters, Eleanora and Leonora, outside the brothels in Évora, Portugal, caused Dr. Heitor Nunes to seek bloody revenge upon the Portuguese government of King João III, fervent supporters of the Catholic Church’s Inquisition and auto-da-fes begun in Lisbon in 1536. His lust for blood was tempered by his love for Leonor, youngest daughter of Dr. Enrique Pessoa, doctor and head of the Safe House network in Lisbon that sent Jews to Barbary and religious freedom in 1545. Amidst the burnings of secret Jews, Protestants and foreigners at auto-da-fes led by the murderous Inquisition seeking to purify the land, their love endured and grew with a burning intensity that even death could not diminish.

Still in his twenties but already famous for his fiery orations and controversial autobiography, black abolitionist Frederick Douglass traveled to Great Britain in 1845 on an eighteen-month lecture and fund-raising tour. This book examines how that visit affected transatlantic reform movements and Douglass’s own thinking. The first book dedicated specifically to the trip, it features the work of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic--including Douglass biographer William McFeely and abolitionist scholar R. J. M. Blackett--who use Douglass’s visit to reexamine aspects of his life and times. The contributors reveal the visit’s significance to an understanding of transatlantic gender relations, religion, radicalism, and popular views of African Americans in Britain and also examine such topics as Douglass’s attitudes toward the Irish and his campaign against the Free Church of Scotland for accepting southern money. Together, these essays show that Douglass’s journey was a personal and political triumph and a key event in his development, leaving him better prepared to set the strategies and ideologies of the abolitionist movement.

In this haunting and noirish novel by a leading author and critic, an Indian writer travels to Berlin and soon finds himself slipping into a fragmented, fuguelike state. An Indian writer has come to Berlin as a visiting professor. This is his second sojourn in the city, which seems strange, and also strangely familiar, to him. He is disoriented by its names, its immensity, and its history; he is worried that something may happen to him there. Faqrul, a friendly Bangladeshi poet living in exile, takes him up—then disappears. The visiting writer is increasingly adrift in a city that not long ago was two cities, each cut off from the other, much as the new unified city is cut off from the divided one of the past. It is the fall of 2005; every day it grows colder. The visitor is beginning to feel his middle age. To him, the new world of the twenty-first century, with its endless commodities from all over the place and no prospect of any sort of historical transformation, appears to exist in a state of amnesiac suspense. He gets involved with a woman, Birgit. He begins to miss his classes. He blacks out in the street. People are worried. “I’ve lost my bearings—not in the city; in its history,” he thinks. “The less sure I become of it, the more I know my way.” But does he? Amit Chaudhuri’s Sojourn is a dramatic and disconcerting work of fiction, a book about the present as it slips into the past, a picture of a city and of a troubled mind, a historical novel about an ostensibly post-historical time, a story of haunting. Here, as in his earlier work, Chaudhuri pries open fictional form to explore questions of public and private life in ways that are both bold and subtle.

It has been a year since the incident that stranded the Continental ship Eureka outside the galaxy. The unprecedented use of a limitless portal technology has provoked the galactic Imperial powers to go on the defensive, preparing for war. The Elves and Santa are largely to blame for the state of galactic politics; despite their intentions being for the greater good, things have only grown worse... After failing the Mission, Tiberius is resolved to keep his people together, determined not to forsake his commitment to the masses. Tiberius was told he would be the last Santa, that he must now separate himself from the Elves. Yet Tiberius refuses to listen to anyone, sure that he will find a solution to keep the Mission going. Time is running out, his control is slipping; the distrust amongst the Elves is reaching a flash point. Forced to evacuate their home and scattered to the stars, the Disciplines struggle to coordinate their Elves and keep their organizations running. The galaxy's people, great and small, need help and guidance. For some Elves that means having to rely on themselves and not their Disciplines. All must find innovative ways to keep the galaxy from disintegrating into chaos. The fabled Key Stones are the Elves' last hope to save the Mission and return to their home. But they are not the only ones on the hunt for the mysterious objects. Returning from the stranded Eureka, the Elfin ship Vega resumes the search for the Key Stones while being pursued by the sinister Shinsei; a Rune Master who has been plotting in the shadows and is revealed to be the mastermind behind Emiko and the rival of Merlin. Kyanite Astro, a young elf struggling with basic Rune control and his own identity, will be forced into a face-off with Shinsei that will ultimately determine the fate of the Elves and the galaxy. About the Magi Charter series: For over two thousand years the legend of Santa Claus has endured. His is a Mission of peace as outlined in the Magi Charter, given to the first Santa by the Child. From humble beginnings, following that First Christmas, the Santa lineage has been passed down through the ages. This epic adventure tells the story of those Santas from the founding of the North Pole and the origin of the ancient elves, to our modern times where the world's problems affect even those in the secluded complex of the North, and concluding in the distant future which finds Santa and the elves committed to their mission on a galactic scale where Christmas traditions are barely recognizable. In every era, those committed to the Mission must find a way to deliver that which is needed most to those most deserving.

Returning home after exacting revenge on the murderers of his nephew Jack, Tim Hassett has a great deal to be thankful for, a loving family and a prosperous ranch. Life is good for the Hassett Dynasty. With the birth of two babies on the same day, their world appears to be ideal. When Mick Hassett's wife, Christina, receives a letter and a visit from her late husband's parents, both events serve to shatter their dreams. With their abduction of her small son, Robby, peace quickly turns into dangerous chaos. Being a fighter, and with some unexpected help, Robby alerts the people searching for him of his whereabouts. Once he is found their retribution is swift and mighty for all involved in his kidnapping. To Mick, Robby's step-father, danger seems to loom everywhere, and with a longing for his home in Ireland, he jumps at the chance to return there with Christina and their children. Will they make the long trip home safely? The Sojourn is the story of a family's quest to find peace and happiness.