Wail An American Journey

A novel in autobiographical vignette form

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A great American success story . . . an endearing and well-written book.”—The New York Times Book Review Colin Powell is the embodiment of the American dream. He was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He knew the rough life of the streets. He overcame a barely average start at school. Then he joined the Army. The rest is history—Vietnam, the Pentagon, Panama, Desert Storm—but a history that until now has been known only on the surface. Here, for the first time, Colin Powell himself tells us how it happened, in a memoir distinguished by a heartfelt love of country and family, warm good humor, and a soldier’s directness. My American Journey is the powerful story of a life well lived and well told. It is also a view from the mountaintop of the political landscape of America. At a time when Americans feel disenchanted with their leaders, General Powell’s passionate views on family, personal responsibility, and, in his own words, “the greatness of America and the opportunities it offers” inspire hope and present a blueprint for the future. An utterly absorbing account, it is history with a vision.

Alistair Cooke, then a Washington correspondent for the Guardian, recognized a great story to be told in investigating at first hand the effects of the Second World War on America and the daily lives of Americans as they adjusted to radically new circumstances. Within weeks of the Pearl Harbor attack, Cooke set off with a reporter’s zeal on a circuit of the entire country to see what the war had done to people. He talked to everyone he encountered on his extensive trip, from miners to lumberjacks, to war-profiteers, to day-laborers, to local politicians – even the unfortunate Japanese-Americans who had been rapidly interned in stark, desert camps. This unique travelogue celebrates an important American character and the indomitable spirit of a nation that was to inspire Cooke’s reports and broadcasts for some sixty years.

Valuable teaching moments and life lessons are illustrated in a personal and colorful story told by a successful immigrant parent. Immigrants struggle with two cultures and so do their children. How do they mesh the two? An American Journey teaches immigrant parents life lessons to convey to their children in easy to understand and simple English, with examples dealing with almost every facet of their children's lives. The chapters deal with issues that are critical to immigrants: faith, values, family, marriage, home, education, and friends. The freedom they wanted to enjoy in the U.S is often the very thing immigrants blame for the conflicts with their children, who struggle to adhere to their parent's wishes and also experience the freedoms their friends enjoy. Practical advice is given based on personal experiences.

1949: American Rudy Chapman is planning his escape from Communist East Germany. For the past decade, he has survived the Nazi regime's brutality by teaching English in the tiny village of Grossheringen and translating at a POW camp while secretly aiding Allied POW code writers. Rudy falls in love with Miriam, a young Jewish woman in hiding, and remains optimistic that Miriam's family is alive. At war's end, unseen forces pull the couple apart. Miriam is utterly convinced her family has vanished, yet Rudy remains a Holocaust skeptic. Eventually escaping to West Germany, Rudy is recruited by the Allies to assist post-war displaced persons. Finally learning that the Holocaust was real, Rudy is devastated. Hoping to start a new life with Miriam, he longs to reunite with her. But will Miriam survive her daunting escape to the West? A Merriam Press Historical Fiction book.

Ultimately, the book provides a deeper view of 1950s America, not simply as the black-and-white precursor to the Technicolor flamboyance of the sixties but as a rich period of artistic expression and identity formation that blended cultural production and politics.

Sevareid was one of the great American journalists, and Schroth has turned his life into one of the great American stories. Schroth explores the American landscape and the century's history for clues to the man. From Sevareid's hometown in South Dakota to Europe on the brink of war, Schroth brings to life the history of the public man--what he was and what made him that way.

A Kerouac scholar traces the true adventures behind the twentieth century classic novel and discusses the real-life inspirations for the novel's memorable characters.