Twice Born

This international bestseller is a sweeping portrait of motherhood, loss, and redemption in war-torn Sarajevo. Filled with memories of the four-year siege of Sarajevo, Gemma reluctantly boards a flight from her native Rome to that war-scarred city with her sixteen-year-old son, Pietro. She hopes to teach her son about the city of his birth and about Diego, the father he never knew. Once there Gemma is caught between the present and the past, reliving her love affair with Diego, their determination to start a family, and their deep connection to Sarajevo even as the threat of war loomed. In this haunting and sophisticated novel, Mazzantini masterfully probes the startling emotional territory of what makes a family-particularly what makes a mother. As the fate of Sarajevo converges with Gemma's all-consuming desire to have a child we see how far she is driven, in a stunning revelation that is both heartbreaking and cathartic. Brought to life by an unforgettable cast of characters, Twice Born is a tale of the acts of brutality and generosity that war can inspire. A blockbuster bestseller in Mazzantini's native Italy, it has taken Europe by storm and will soon be published around the world.

In The Twice-Born, Aatish Taseer embarks on a journey of self-discovery in an intoxicating, unsettling personal reckoning with modern India, where ancient customs collide with the contemporary politics of revivalism and revenge When Aatish Taseer first came to Benares, the spiritual capital of Hinduism, he was eighteen, the Westernized child of an Indian journalist and a Pakistani politician, raised among the intellectual and cultural elite of New Delhi. Nearly two decades later, Taseer leaves his life in Manhattan to go in search of the Brahmins, wanting to understand his own estrangement from India through their ties to tradition. Known as the twice-born—first into the flesh, and again when initiated into their vocation—the Brahmins are a caste devoted to sacred learning. But what Taseer finds in Benares, the holy city of death also known as Varanasi, is a window on an India as internally fractured as his own continent-bridging identity. At every turn, the seductive, homogenizing force of modernity collides with the insistent presence of the past. In a globalized world, to be modern is to renounce India—and yet the tide of nationalism is rising, heralded by cries of “Victory to Mother India!” and an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence. From the narrow streets of the temple town to a Modi rally in Delhi, among the blossoming cotton trees and the bathers and burning corpses of the Ganges, Taseer struggles to reconcile magic with reason, faith in tradition with hope for the future and the brutalities of the caste system, all the while challenging his own myths about himself, his past, and his countries old and new.

When Huy is sent away from his family’s farm to a prestigious school for a chance at a better life as a scribe, he is soon befriended by the family of the local governor. But just as Huy starts to feel at home with his aristocratic new friends, an unexpected attack shockingly takes his life. After five days in a crypt being prepared for his own burial, Huy miraculously revives. His mysterious return to life makes him a pariah, and although he longs to lead a normal life, Huy finds himself haunted by visions of the deaths of those around him. An ingenious and suspenseful novel of ancient Egypt, The Twice Born is a treat for all fans of historical or fantasy fiction.

Dvij, a young man who has lost all his memories in a horrendous car crash, only wants to find out who he was before the accident. But he is stuck in a remote valley where he does not know anybody, and nobody seems to know him. And just when he thought he would be able to find his way out of that place, he finds out that solving a set of riddles in the form of strange symbols marked on a piece of parchment will lead him to a treasure that will change the course of human life. Will he be able to solve the puzzles that lead to the mighty secret? Will he ever find his forgotten past? Or will he forget it forever to embark on the dangerous quest of discovering the treasure? These and other questions get answered in this tightly woven tale of adventure and romance.

'Once-Born, Twice-Born Zen' is a fresh treatment of the two major Zen schools of Japan. Its biographical and comparative approach is both original and very readable. The use of William James' typology, along with other phenomenological categories, provides the reader with helpful handles for distinguishing the schools, as well as similar tendencies in other religious traditions. The book should make an excellent text for introductory and middle-level courses in which one is trying to get students to develop categories for understanding religious experience and behavior. Readers will see something of themselves in the range of biographical examples given, and will detect their own tendencies through the use of this method. -- Bardwell Smith

In January, 1908, a great calamity came to me in the form of destruction by fire of most of my earthly property and the death in the fire of a loved sister. The event had in it some other elements of great pain not necessary to mention here. If my soul had not been anchored in Jesus, the combination of sorrows would have broken down my mentality and sent me to the asylum. As it was, I stood steadily trusting God, knowing that all things worked together for good to those who love God. I was sure I was a lover of God, and so, while every fiber of my body and soul ached with unspeakable pain, I never doubted God's love, care and sympathy. In the midst of this grief I received a letter from Mr. George W. Wheeler, the President of the Executive Board of the Gospel Mission, saying about this, “Come down to the Gospel Mission, look it over and see if you care to come in with us in the work of saving souls. Unless we secure a woman of large executive ability, our work can scarcely go forward.” I answered that I would be glad to join them, and the next week, the first week of September, 1908, I received a letter from the Secretary, S. M. Croft, saying I had been elected to the Executive Board of the Gospel Mission, which met once every week. The following Monday I met with the Board, where I heard a letter from Mr. Tyson, saying that he withdrew from the Board because the dormitories were badly kept. Then followed a letter of the same kind from a Mr. Fritz, and another from Mr. Sidell. As soon as the session, which was largely a prayer service, was closed, Mr. Wheeler accompanied me to look over the dormitories. I never saw or dreamed of such conditions. The very walls were alive with vermin. In the story above the chapel were fifteen vile beds, and on the third story above us we saw a floor covered with dirty, wrinkled newspapers. I said, “Where do the men sleep?” “On the beds you saw in the third floor and on these newspapers.”

Svarup and Premartha are lovers, friends, and partners. They have been working together in the field of spiritual therapy for many years. This book is the outcome of their experience. In it, you will find a beautiful combination of therapy and meditation, of love and awareness. Twice Born offers a synthesis of the Western and Eastern approaches toward Childhood Deconditioning. It addresses the unresolved issues of our early childhood that play an important part in the way we feel, behave, and relate today. It also supports our rediscovery of the qualities of being, presence, and individuality which we were born with, so we can take them with us into a second birth, towards our Buddha nature. The book leads us through a fascinating journey through time, from before we entered school all the way back to the moment before conception. Each chapter addresses a different developmental stage of childhood. It describes the wounds that can happen at each stage, and the many ways in which they can be healed. It also reveals the natural essences that are part of that specific period. It is a book that receives its inspiration from the rich meditative energy field of a Master. It teaches us how to work on our issues joyfully, bringing compassion towards them. Each chapter is divided in three segments: .An explaining and understanding section, .An evoking section, in which the authors share their experience in healing their inner child .An experimenting section The golden thread throughout this healing journey is a meditative awareness, which will help us in healing the past and creating a new future."

When a breach birth leaves Paulo severely disabled, his father, the articulate, unsentimental Professor Frigerio, struggles to come to terms with his son’s condition. Face to face with his own limitations, Frigerio confronts the strange way society around him handles Paolo’s handicaps and observes his surprising gifts. In spare, deeply affecting episodes, the professor of language explores the nuanced boundaries between “normal” and “disabled” worlds. A remarkable memoir of fathering, winner of the 2001 Strega Prize, Italy’s most prestigious literary honor, Born Twice is noted Italian author Guiseppe Pontiggia’s American debut. Sometimes meditative, often humorous, and always probing, Pontiggia’s haunting characters linger and resound long after the book is done.