To Bury The Devil

Harper Wolfe never intended to return for an extended period to his place of birth in Kellersville, Alabama. Now a successful mystery writer, he lives in California where he moved after divorcing his childhood sweetheart, Nan. When he finds out that Nan is dying, he returns home to be with her and reconnects with his now-teenage son, PK. Because he will eventually have full custody of PK and plans to relocate him to Palm Springs, he faces several significant hurdles. Harper and PK have spent a month together each summer, but neither Harper nor Nan has told their son that his father is gay. Their time together has been wonderful, but in reality, they don’t know each other very well because PK was only nine years old when Harper and Nan separated. In addition, living in the house with Hank, Nan’s second husband, because Harper has harbored a secret crush on him since the three of them taught together at the local high school. Another significant challenge for Harper is dealing with his Aunt Clairisse, a master manipulator who rules the family with an iron hand. Because she controls the purse strings of the family business, her son and daughter bow to her every command. Harper is forced into a showdown with Clairisse. Death is an unwelcomed visitor to the family reunion; unfortunately not all demises are of natural causes. Family skeletons come out of many closets, and secrets are revealed to mixed reactions and emotions. Harper experiences his hometown from a new and interesting, if not tragic, point of view. Although he is definitely not an outsider, his perspective is a combination of native son and visitor. As he reacquaints himself with this rural village’s traditions and eccentric residents, he sees both the vicious and comical sides of Southern life and customs, which not so long ago were part of his everyday life.

INDEX Part I. Demonolatry. Chapter I. Dualism. Chapter II. The Genesis of Demons. Chapter III. Degradation. Chapter IV. The Abgott. Chapter V. Classification. Part II. The Demon. Chapter I. Hunger. Chapter II. Heat. Chapter III. Cold. Chapter IV. Elements. Chapter V. Animals. Chapter VI. Enemies. Chapter VII. Barrenness. Chapter VIII. Obstacles. Chapter IX. Illusion. Chapter X. Darkness. Chapter XI. Disease. Chapter XII. Death. Part III. The Dragon. Chapter I. Decline of Demons. Chapter II. Generalisation of Demons. Chapter III. The Serpent. Chapter IV. The Worm. Chapter V. Apophis. Chapter VI. The Serpent in India. Chapter VII. The Basilisk. Chapter VIII. The Dragon’s Eye. Chapter IX. The Combat. Chapter X. The Dragon-slayer. Chapter XI. The Dragon’s Breath. Chapter XII. Fate. Part IV. The Devil. Chapter I. Diabolism. Chapter II. The Second Best. Chapter III. Ahriman: The Divine Devil. Chapter IV. Viswámitra: The Theocratic Devil. Chapter V. Elohim and Jehovah. Chapter VI. The Consuming Fire. Chapter VII. Paradise and the Serpent. Chapter VIII. Eve. Chapter IX. Lilith. Chapter X. War in Heaven. Chapter XI. War on Earth. Chapter XII. Strife. Chapter XIII. Barbaric Aristocracy. Chapter XIV. Job and the Divider. Chapter XV. Satan. Chapter XVI. Religious Despotism. Chapter XVII. The Prince of this World. Chapter XVIII. Trial of the Great. Chapter XIX. The Man of Sin. Chapter XX. The Holy Ghost. Chapter XXI. Antichrist. Chapter XXII. The Pride of Life. Chapter XXIII. The Curse on Knowledge. Chapter XXIV. Witchcraft. Chapter XXV. Faust and Mephistopheles. Chapter XXVI. The Wild Huntsman. Chapter XXVII. Le Bon Diable. Chapter XXVIII. Animalism. Chapter XXIX. Thoughts and Interpretations.

Thirteen-year-old Boli and his friends are deep in the middle of a game of marbles. An older boy named Mosca has won the prized Devil's Fire marble. His pals are jealous and want to win it away from him. This is Izayoc, the place of tears, a small pueblo in a tiny valley west of Mexico City where nothing much happens. It's a typical hot Sunday morning except that on the way to church someone discovers the severed head of Enrique Quintanilla propped on the ledge of one of the cement planters in the plaza and everything changes. Not apocalyptic changes, like phalanxes of men riding on horses with stingers for tails, but subtle ones: poor neighbors turning up with brand-new SUVs, pimpled teens with fancy girls hanging off them. Boli's parents leave for Toluca and don't arrive at their destination. No one will talk about it. A washed out masked wrestler turns up one day, a man only interested in finding his next meal. Boli hopes to inspire the luchador to set out with him to find his parents. Phillippe Diederich was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Mexico City and Miami. His parents were forced out of Haiti by the dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier in 1963. As a photojournalist, Diederich has traveled extensively through Mexico and witnessed the terrible tragedies of the Drug Wars.

The inspiring true story of an enslaved woman who liberated an infamous slave jail and transformed it into one of the nation’s first HBCUs In The Devil’s Half Acre, New York Times bestselling author Kristen Green draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of young Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the “Devil’s Half Acre.” When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into “God’s Half Acre,” a school where Black men could fulfill their dreams. It still exists today as Virginia Union University, one of America’s first Historically Black Colleges and Universities. A sweeping narrative of a life in the margins of the American slave trade, The Devil’s Half Acre brings Mary Lumpkin into the light. This is the story of the resilience of a woman on the path to freedom, her historic contributions, and her enduring legacy.