The Land Of My Fathers

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.

Anna had a charmed childhood in 1930s Shanghai with her smuggler father. Anna and her mother fled the Japanese occupation and settled in California, but her father stayed behind. Fifteen years later, Anna is grown with a family of her own in Los Angeles when her father reappears.

In 1960, renowned Nevada writer Robert Laxalt moved himself and his family to a small Basque village in the French Pyrenees. The son of Basque emigrants, Laxalt wanted to learn as much as he could about the ancient and mysterious people from which he was descended and about the country from which his parents came. Thanks to his Basque surname and a wide network of family connections, Laxalt was able to penetrate the traditional reserve of the Basques in a way that outsiders rarely can. In the process, he gained rare insight into the nature of the Basques and the isolated, beautiful mountain world where they have lived for uncounted centuries. Based on Laxalt’s personal journals of this and a later sojourn in 1965, The Land of My Fathers is a moving record of a people and their homeland. Through Laxalt’s perceptive eyes and his wife Joyce’s photographs, we observe the Basques’ market days and festivals, join their dove hunts and harvests, share their humor and history, their deep sense of nationalism, their abiding pride in their culture and their homes, and discover the profound sources of the Basques’ strength and their endurance as a people. Photography by Joyce Laxalt.

Return to the Land of My Fathers is an inspiring novel that takes readers from pre-World War II Finland to modern day America. Ilmari grew up as a fisherman at a lake in Karelia, in Eastern Finland and bordering Russia. There he had a happy life with his growing family until World War II changed everything. His family was forcefully evacuated with 422,000 other Karelians. Ilmari's son, Aleksi, was taken as a prisoner of war and spent several hard years at a labor camp in Siberia, before serving the Soviet intelligence, and then becoming a gold medal candidate in shooting at the Olympic Games in Helsinki. Aleksi's goal was to defect during the Olympics, which resulted in incredible adventures throughout Finland, including meeting his future wife. Ilmari started a new career as a painter. Through his art, he expressed the longing for the Land of His Fathers, his beloved Karelia. He became a renowned artist, later finding inspiration also in the beautiful seashore landscape on Long Island. Aleksi became a literature professor and he reflects on the evacuation process from Karelia, comparing it to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the age of ninety-five, Ilmari has the possibility to return to the Land of His Fathers with his grown-up children and grandchildren. He reflects on the Return to the Land of My Fathers. Was it an illusion or for real? Author Bio: Kenneth Lundstrom is a molecular biologist working in the area of cancer therapy. Originally from Helsinki, Finland, he now resides near Lausanne, Switzerland. He has previously published Taxi Trips to Remember or Forget, a travel memoir, and is now writing his next book. http: //sbpra.com/KennethLundstrom

Set against the background of the Chartist rebellion, LAND OF MY FATHERS is a heartfelt evocation of the greatest iron town in the world, Merthyr, and of the people who made it so: foundry-owners and workers, immigrants, fortune-hunters, idealists, prostitutes and wastrels. It is also the story of one man, Taliesin Roberts, robust, determined, passionate - and of a three-sided love that will never die.

The Land of My Fathers Birth is a memoir of war, survival, and adventure, spanning continents, from Liberia to the Ivory Coast; from United States to the Middle East and Europe. It is a personal story of surviving ethnic and religious persecution during the Liberian Civil War, as author Nvasekie Konneh, of mixed Mandingo and Mano heritage, fled from the advancing rebel forces of Charles Taylor. It is a story of courage, as Konneh sought refuge in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where he met and befriended the daughter of the countrys first military leader, Robert Guei. It is a story of reinvention, as Konneh comes to the United States, joined the US Navy, and is stationed on board the USS Detroit during which the ship is deployed in the Middle East and Europe making port visits to Haifa/Jerusalem, Dubai, Paris, and Dakar. It is a celebration of ethnic and religious diversity, a call to embrace differences in times of war and peace from a social activist who has been writing for social cultural enlightenment since the early 1990s. For those to whom the idea of living through a civil war is unimaginable, this book is an eye-opening revelation. For those who lived through or observed it at first hand, Konneh provides an insightful, panoramic view of the experiences he and his countrymen shared. The greatest tales of adventure are those lived by real people in challenging times: The Land of My Fathers Birth is a thrilling and enlightening saga for all readers.

The biblical motif of a land divinely-promised and given to Abraham and his descendants is argued to be an ideological reflex of post-monarchic, territorial disputes between competing socio-religious groups. The important biblical motif of a Promised Land is founded upon the ancient Near Eastern concept of ancestral land: hereditary space upon which families lived, worked, died and were buried. An essential element of concept of ancestral land was the belief in the post-mortem existence of the ancestors, who were venerated with grave offerings, mortuary feasts, bone rituals and standing stones. The Hebrew Bible is littered with stories concerning these practices and beliefs, yet the specific correlation of ancestor veneration and certain biblical land claims has gone unrecognized. The book remedies this in presenting evidence for the vital and persistent impact of ancestor veneration upon land claims. It proposes that ancestor veneration, which formed a common ground in the experiences of various socio-religious groups in ancient Israel, became in the Hebrew Bible an ideological battlefield upon which claims to the land were won and lost.