Troubled Waters

National bestselling author Sharon Shinn introduces a rich new fantasy world, one in which people believe that five essential elements rule all things and guide their lives.

"'Troubled Waters' is a novel of transition. Set in 1974, the action focuses on two young people who are being shaken loose from their roots in family and tribe by the winds of political change. There is the Transvaler Andries Malan, conscripted into the South African bush war against SWAPO and posted to teach Biblical Studies in the black school near Rundu. And there is Lucia, subtly alienated from the local community by her university training, whom he loves briefly and leaves with child when his tour is ended. Surrounding them, or surfacing in memories and dreams, are other border crossers: Mavis, the maid who was closer to Andries than his own mother but whose children he has never met; Frank the misfit 'Suitwester' who honours the ways of the children he teaches; Moyo the herdboy who becomes a guerilla - and, always present yet barely glimpsed as brief apparitions among the foliage of trees, the PLAN fighters. What is more, the order and dignity of tribal life have themselves been irretrievably fractured by the imposition of puppet 'self-rule' on an ethnically defined Kavango 'nation'. A penetrating political understanding controls the narrative which centres on the troubled mind of Andries. 'The Other' is imaginatively entered and observed without either sentimentality or rancour. This steady calm gaze is the most remarkable virtue of a beautifully told novel"--Annemarie Heywood, back cover.

This text examines the causes and consequences of each of those dynamics, both individually and collectively, that have made this small waterway and its surrounding areas one of the most volatile and tension-filled regions in the world. This pervasive insecurity, the book argues, is largely a product of four interrelated developments.

A history of the countries bordering the Black Sea told through the stories of the people who live there. Fringing the Black Sea is a diverse array of countries, some centuries old and others emerging only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Jens Mühling travels through this region, telling the stories of the people he meets along the way in order to paint a picture of the mix of cultures found here and to understand the present against a history stretching back to the arrival of Ancient Greek settlers and beyond. A fluent Russian speaker with a knack for gaining the trust of those he meets, Mühling brings together a cast of characters as diverse as the stories he hears, all of whom are willing to tell him their complex, contradictory, and often fantastical tales full of grief and legend. He meets descendants of the so-called Pontic Greeks, whom Stalin deported to Central Asia and who have now returned; Circassians who fled to Syria a century ago and whose great-great-grandchildren have returned to Abkhazia; and members of ethnic minorities like the Georgian Mingrelians or Bulgarian Muslims, expelled to Turkey in the summer of 1989. Mühling captures the region’s uneasy alliance of tradition and modernity and the diverse humanity of those who live there.

Billionaire Ian Shaw can have everything he wants--except a happy ending. Or at least that's what it feels like with his fortune recently liquidated, his niece, Esme, still missing, and the woman he loves refusing to speak to him. In fact, he doubts she would date him even if they were stranded on a deserted island. Despite her love for Ian, Sierra Rose knows he has no room in his life for her as long as the mystery of his missing niece goes unsolved. The only problem is, Sierra has solved it, but a promise to Esme to keep her whereabouts secret has made it impossible to be around Ian. When the PEAK chopper is damaged and Sierra lacks the funds to repair it, Ian offers a fundraising junket for large donors on his yacht in the Caribbean. But the three-day excursion turns into a nightmare when a rogue wave cripples the yacht and sends the passengers overboard. Shaken up and soaked to the bone, Ian finally has a chance to test his theory when he and Sierra do indeed find themselves washed up on a strange, empty shore. It will take guts and gumption for the PEAK team to rescue the duo. But it will take a miracle to rescue Ian and Sierra's relationship.

Water--although it covers more than two-thirds of the earth's surface, clean, potable water is in critically short supply. As more and more people globally show greater interest in what their religious traditions say about our natural world, Troubled Waters: Religion, Ethics, and the Global Water Crisis examines the central role of water in various traditions and rituals, arriving at creative new ways to approach the growing water crisis worldwide. Chamberlain outlines many of the current water problems and lays out clear principles for action that engaged citizens from various traditions can undertake to meet the growing water challenges through conservation and water management policies. The book describes many religious practices from around the world that help sustain and restore water by using new technologies and reviving old ones. Offering creative suggestions for both personal practices and group action, Chamberlain advocates conservation, preservation, and restoration of our troubled waters.

College life for Layla Weston isn't starting the way she'd intended. She's revisiting the plans she once had to be the reclusive girl she wanted to be at Heyward Prep, and Layla is more than confident in her ability to succeed this time. After all, she's got a whole new bag of secrets to keep. Still reeling from Will's disappearance, Layla is doing her best to adjust to life back in Florida. She continues to hold out hope, confident she was meant to find Will's ring for a reason. Just as Layla starts to accept that she must keep moving forward, secrets from the past threaten Layla and her family. As Luke and Claire join with her to protect their family, Layla discovers that her uncle may not be the man she thought he was-- and that there's much more to Will's disappearance than she could ever have imagined.

Baptism has been a contested practice from the very beginning of the church. In this volume, Ben Witherington rethinks the theology of baptism and does so in constant conversation with the classic theological positions and central New Testament texts. By placing baptism in the context of the covenant, Witherington shows how advocates of both believer's baptism and infant baptism have added some water to both their theology and practice of baptism