The Blind Heart As I See It

The reckless whim of a successful restaurateur of southern France leaves him stripped of everything but his skill as a chef and his philosophy.

Amid the chaos of civilians fleeing west in a provincial German railway station in 1945, Helene has brought her seven-year-old son. Having survived with him through the horrors and deprivations of the war years, she abandons him on the station platform and never returns. This is a tale of hope, loneliness and love; of a life lived in terrible times; the story of a family, an era, and a fascinating woman. 'This is a great big silence-breaker of a novel, a laser beam into the German darkness from a writer who, one feels, has a great deal more to say' Evening Standard 'Admirable...inspired and haunting' Times Literary Supplement 'Franck's command of the language of misery and loss is awesome, but so is her gift for describing the warmth of burgeoning life when things are going right' The Times 'A rich, moving and complex novel... Julia Franck may well have written a great novel' Scotsman 'The Blind Side of the Heartis a masterpiece, in an exquisite translation by Anthea Bell' Arts & Book Review

Reproduction of the original.

NOW AN INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER, ranking # 1 in 9 categories on 3 continents. At fifty years of age, Amber Needham suddenly went from having perfect vision to becoming blind. Despite the life-changing tragedy of losing her sight and the frustrating challenges this created in her day-to-day life, she eventually came to accept, manage, and even celebrate her blindness. Her disability taught her a new way to see—with her heart instead of her eyes. With warmth, humour, and wisdom, Amber shares anecdotes and lessons she learned from her experiences while encouraging readers to look deeper at their own setbacks and struggles to search out the inner meaning. For anyone facing hardships or dealing with disability or illness, The Blind Girl Sees offers hope, motivation, and the skills needed to transform pain into acceptance, purpose, and even joy.

Our nation can hardly realize the severity of the African American and Latinx people's plight as they are marginalized and subjected to harsh treatment despite the end of slavery over a century ago. Yet we are fighters and have played a definitive role in shaping America's economics, traditions, culture, values and beliefs. We must move forward to witness a new era even in the midst of a Coronavirus Pandemic, racial prejudicial and gender disparities and a lack of respect for humanity. I see a glimmer of hope as we barely realize that we need each other in society and we will need to utilize every strategy available to the human mind to survive together. "There will be no more gloom for those who were in distress, for the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. (Is. 9: 1-2)

An exploration of early modern accounts of sickness and disability—and what they tell us about our own approach to bodily difference In our age of biomedicine, society often treats sickness and disability as problems in need of solution. Phenomena of embodied difference, however, have not always been seen in terms of lack and loss. Where Paralytics Walk and the Blind See explores the case of early modern Catholic Canada under French rule and shows it to be a period rich with alternative understandings of infirmity, disease, and death. Counternarratives to our contemporary assumptions, these early modern stories invite us to creatively imagine ways of living meaningfully with embodied difference today. At the heart of Dunn’s account are a range of historical sources: Jesuit stories of illness in New France, an account of Canada’s first hospital, the hagiographic vita of Catherine de Saint-Augustin, and tales of miraculous healings wrought by a dead Franciscan friar. In an early modern world that subscribed to a Christian view of salvation, both sickness and disability held significance for more than the body, opening opportunities for virtue, charity, and even redemption. Dunn demonstrates that when these reflections collide with modern thinking, the effect is a certain kind of freedom to reimagine what sickness and disability might mean to us. Reminding us that the meanings we make of embodied difference are historically conditioned, Where Paralytics Walk and the Blind See makes a forceful case for the role of history in broadening our imagination.

Merlin on Manstone Mynd, twenty eight chapters about Merlin, Taliesin and Nimue, set in the sixth century. Links Taliesin to Byzantium and Merlin to the four hallows, the Shroud, the Lance, the Grail and the Ring. Deals with the Nine Rings of Avalon and the Matter of Britain, the healing of the Land.