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Nowadays, the idea that the way a country borrows its money is connected to what kind of government it has comes as a surprise to most people. But in the eighteenth century it was commonly accepted that public debt and political liberty were intimately related. In A Free Nation Deep in Debt, James Macdonald explores the connection between public debt and democracy in the broadest possible terms. He starts with some fundamental questions: Why do governments borrow? How do we explain the existence of democratic institutions in the ancient world? Why did bond markets come into existence, and why did this occur in Europe and not elsewhere?

Macdonald finds the answers to these questions in a sweeping history that begins in biblical times, focuses on the key period of the eighteenth century, and continues down to the present. He ranges the world, from Mesopotamia to China to France to the United States, and finds evidence for the marriage of democracy and public credit from its earliest glimmerings to its swan song in the bond drives of World War II. Today the two are, it seems, divorced--but understanding their hundreds of years of cohabitation is crucial to appreciating the democracy that we now take for granted.

• Sales Rank: #2268892 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.30" h x 1.88" w x 6.34" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 576 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Public borrowing from citizens in times of war has gone hand in hand with modern democracy, Macdonald argues in this dense, sweeping economic history. A former investment banker now living in London, Macdonald traces the history of public financing of "national emergencies" (read: wars), from the biblical era through the present day. Until modern times, he shows, nations relied on stored treasure and surpluses to finance wars, often with detrimental results. Indeed, Macdonald argues that an inability to raise taxes for wars was one of the causes of Rome's downfall. Placing the importance of credit back at the center of historical causality is one of the book's strengths. The system of public credit swept onto the world stage in 18th-century Britain, France and the United States, and was intricately linked, notes the author, with revolutions in these latter two countries. During the 20th century, the system-and the notion of a "citizen-creditor"-reached its strongest point during WWI and likely had its swan song during WWII, because of postwar inflation, the succeeding decline in trust in government in the West and the increasingly global understanding of citizenship. There is much to learn here, but despite Macdonald's best attempts at accessibility, readers without a background in economics will struggle through.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
MacDonald, a former investment banker, examines the historical linkage between political freedom and public debt, showing why representative governments have been able to borrow more cheaply from citizen lenders than autocratic heads of state who do not consider their citizens to be equals. Beginning at the end of the Bronze Age, this wide-ranging, comprehensive treatise traces the story of public finance and political freedom through the Napoleonic Wars to the twentieth century. We learn that the U.S. role in World War I was funded with public debt and, it is interesting to note, that World War II was the last major engagement in which savings bonds were a vital part of national security and the war effort. The mature bond markets of today have a global reach, and governments no longer depend upon citizen lenders. Even when considering the hard facts of money and credit markets--and their political implications--the author emphasizes the relationship between the state and its people, in this well-considered work. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Chief Justice John Marshall observed that the power to tax involves the power to destroy. James Macdonald argues that the power to borrow is the key to democracy. This startling and original book traces the evolution of public debt from the Bronze Age to our own and in clear, lucid prose shows that successful state finances have been both a cause and an effect of the emergence of democratic forms. This is a truly unusual work written by somebody who combines financial expertise and historical imagination." --Jonathan Steinberg, University of Pennsylvania

"Macdonald's wide-ranging exploration of representative political institutions and the ability of states to borrow, survive, and prosper is history at its best. Political liberty, sound public financial policies, and well-functioning securities markets nurture one another, but across human history all three have been hardly gained, easily lost, and therefore rare. It is a deep insight, one that all who cherish freedom should understand and heed." --Richard Sylla, Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets, Stern School of Business, New York University


"A profound and original work of historical scholarship . . . Macdonald has something exciting to teach." --Niall Ferguson, author of The Cash Nexus

Most helpful customer reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
The Relationship of Public Finance and Political Freedom
By Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty
"A Free Nation Deep in Debt" is James Macdonald's first literary contribution to the field of political economy and it is rich in historical detail, a fact which may make it a challenging read for anyone unacquainted with ordinary economic history and its specific historiography. Macdonald, an investment banker for many years who now lives in Oxford, England, discusses the idea that the way a country borrows its money is associated with what kind of government it has. In his discussion, Macdonald traces the evolution of public debt from antiquity to the present, arguing that public finance and political freedom are more closely interrelated than most people realize.
For those who like some structure in a book of this complexity, it can easily be divided into an introduction and four main sections. The first seven pages, with the title "Introduction: The Financial Roots of Democracy," sketches out what is to come, providing the reader with a framework for the coming text and raising the essential questions with which the author will wrestle.
The first section traces the history of public finance and political freedom from the end of the Bronze Age to the end of the Dark Ages, contrasts two different types of finances -- tribal and imperial, explains the historic advantages of autocratic government, considers the critical period when some of the emerging societies settled down and civilized themselves without losing their political freedom, and, in regard to the so-called Dark Ages, asks why they had a more intense and enduring effect in western Europe than in other places. This initial section sets the stage for a comprehensive description of the relationship of public finance and political freedom in the Middle Ages and modern times.
The second section deals with medieval Europe. It was to be the role of medieval Italian city-states to bring back the idea of democratic public financing and modify it so it could become a workable plan for public financing. According to Macdonald, "The system that they created, although in one way fatally flawed, set off a chain of events with results that no one could have predicted." The third section of the book continues the discussion of public finance by looking at the attempts of other European states to come to terms with the implications of the Italian strategy.
The fourth and final section considers events after the French Revolution, and the author suggests that "The outcome of the Napoleonic Wars demonstrated the superiority of a political system based on the alliance of parliamentary government and public debt, but now there was a new question: Would a system created in a world of restricted citizenship and limited franchise prove compatible with universal suffrage. It was the role of the nineteenth century to find a solution to this problem. In the devastating wars of the first half of the twentieth century, this solution was put to the test." And Macdonald concludes that "The First World War was the apotheosis of 'democratic' public finance, the Second its swan song."
Throughout the reading of "A Free Nation Deep in Debt," one is struck continually by both the historical detail the author has uncovered and the factual surprises which he springs on the reader. How many of us realize, for instance, that the problem of public financing was intimately related to the fall of Rome or that in the eighteenth century it was commonly accepted that public debt and political liberty were intimately related? Regarding our own time and country, how many of us realize that the role played by the United States in World War I was funded with public debt?
I will leave it to the experts in economic theory and history to evaluate what appear to be Macdonald's conclusions in this romp through political economy from ancient Mesopotamia to the United States in the twentieth century. Has public borrowing from citizens in times of war gone hand in hand with modern democracy, as Macdonald argues? Does he present a compelling case showing why a democratic government is able to borrow more cheaply from its citizen-lenders than an autocratic state who does not consider its citizens to be equals? Was, in fact, World War II the "swan song" of democratic public financing? And, if true, has this occurred as a result of a decline in the public's trust of government, particularly in Western nations, combined with increasing globalization of the economy?
Readers can decide for themselves whether Macdonald adequately answers the above questions, as well as the other questions he tackles. Suffice to say, "A Free Nation Deep in Debt" is a comprehensive and detailed consideration regarding a certain aspect of economic history, specifically the relationship between public financing and political freedom. Certainly an interesting read, but let the reader beware. This scholarly book is definitely not Sunday afternoon "leisure" reading.
Fortunately for the reader, this book is enhanced with a detailed appendix of notes on currencies which describes them and sets out their relationships in historical context. Furthermore, a helpful glossary is provided which explains the technical terms used in the text, although the educated reader will not have much difficulty with the terms as they are used since they are explained as they occur within the text itself. The author has also provided thirty-five pages of notes, a 21-page bibliography, and a useful index with both major and minor topics listed.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
An excellent history of public debt and its role in developi
By Abacus
This book is not what you think. The title suggests the repeat of the theme exposed by Paul Kennedy in the 80s in his book "The Rise and Fall of Great Powers." But, the two books advance almost symmetrically opposed theories. Paul Kennedy suggested that great powers eventually decline because they can't withstand the fiscal burden of maintaining a nonproductive military effort to govern their empire (the Imperial Overstretch concept). Macdonald instead advances that a public bond market is a nation?s best tool in raising funds for emergencies such as warfare. In Kennedy's book debt is bad. In Macdonald it is good.
Macdonald's argument starts with the fiscal stress associated with having to raise huge amount of funds in preparation for warfare. In such situation, raising taxes is impractical. Often tax rates would have had to double or treble to raise adequate funds to finance wars throughout history. A government can?t do that without causing a revolution. Often what states and government did before the advent of well developed public bond markets was to mine their grounds (or grounds of conquered territories) for mineral riches (gold and silver). The states would then hoard these gold reserves as funds available for a rainy day (war). But, as Macdonald points out this treasure hoarding was most inefficient from an economic standpoint.
Public debt markets became a much preferred alternative to treasure hoarding for financing wars. This was true for several reasons. Treasure hoarding represented a huge amount of wasted capital not reinvested in the economy where it could have generated rapidly rising living standards for society at large. Bond financing (public debt) was so much more flexible a tool for war financing than an ongoing tasking treasure hoarding mechanism.
Comparing two countries, one being a bond borrower, the other a treasure hoarder, one could readily observe that the bond borrower economy would grow much faster, and that it would have an easier time to finance wars when and as needed. Typically, you run out of gold reserve faster than you run out of a state's borrowing capacity.
But, for a public debt market to thrive you need democratic institutions. In democracies, the motivation of the government and its citizen are aligned. This facilitates a trust between the creditors (citizens) and the borrower (the government). As a result, democratic governments can borrow more and at a lower interest costs then other governments. In other words, the creditors of a democratic government assess a lower credit and counterparty risk to a democratic government, and therefore demand a lower risk premium (lower interest rates). This is Macdonald's main argument. Therefore, he concludes that the pressure to create public credit markets to finance wars was an impetus to create public debt markets and in turn to develop democratic institutions.
Macdonald's theory is so current. Today, it is self evident that the countries who have the most transparent disclosure, integer accounting system, accountable governance associated with democracies can borrow at a substantially lower cost than others.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Well argued even if you don't agree with him
By Steven Martinovich
For the record, I won't pretend to be an expert on public debt and all its related trivia so I'll judge this book as a layman only.
A Free Nation Debt in Debt is an impressive bit of research and analysis. Macdonald does a remarkable job tracing the role of public debt stretching back thousands of years in an attempt to advance the notion that democracies are inextricably tied to government funding, and indeed exist because of it. Throughout history, Macdonald argues, public debt has applied pressure on government to become more transparent to both creditors and the citizens it represents.
Of course, the problem with public debt is that it necessitates taxation -- and it may irk readers to hear Macdonald judge who is under- and over-taxed -- an intimately related issue. In fact, taxation plays such a role that you could argue it's a minor character in Macdonald's story.
Does A Free Nation Deep in Debt succeed? That will depend on your perspective. Small government types probably won't care for Macdonald's primary thesis while others may nod in agreement. Either way, it is a fine example of historical research. Warning: Not a casual read. You don't need a degree in economics to pick this up but don't expect to breeze through through it either.

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? Download Forgotten Land: Journeys Among the Ghosts of East Prussia, by Max Egremont

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Until the end of World War II, East Prussia was the German empire's farthest eastern redoubt, a thriving and beautiful land on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea. Now it lives only in history and in myth. Since 1945, the territory has been divided between Poland and Russia, stretching from the border between Russia and Lithuania in the east and south, and through Poland in the west. In Forgotten Land, Max Egremont offers a vivid account of this region and its people through the stories of individuals who were intimately involved in and transformed by its tumultuous history, as well as accounts of his own travels and interviews he conducted along the way.

Forgotten Land is a story of historical identity and character, told through intimate portraits of people and places. It is a unique examination of the layers of history, of the changing perceptions and myths of homeland, of virtue and of wickedness, and of how a place can still overwhelm those who left it years before.

• Sales Rank: #1101958 in Books
• Published on: 2011-11-08
• Released on: 2011-11-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.31" h x 1.30" w x 6.38" l, 1.35 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Review

“This is it. The thoroughly authentic, artistically intelligent biography we've been waiting for. The book is refreshingly rich and subtle as well as psychologically acute. Thank you, Max Egremont.” ―Paul Fussell, author of The Great War and Modern Memory on Siegfried Sassoon

“Memory, its suppression and manipulation, is a recurrent theme in this original book . . . Egremont has written a book that tries to make sense of this history―not as a single, chronological narrative, but as a sequence of short, interconnected essays in which measured reflections, portraits of the leading political and cultural figures, and conversations with exiles from this 'forgotten land' are interwoven. Egremont's allusive prose style seems to echo these multiple perspectives, changing frontiers, blurred racial identities, shifting allegiances and the mass movement of peoples―a story for our time.” ―Richard Calvocoressi, The New Statesman

“The book's canvas is remarkable . . . Egremont's compelling tale exploits his boundless intellectual curiosity, mastery of German and eye for whimsy as well as tragedy. I know enough of the story he tells to appreciate how much he has discovered that is quite unfamiliar to Anglo-Saxon readers . . . his literary journey through its past makes fascinating reading.” ―Max Hastings, Sunday Times (UK)

“East Prussia is Germany's lost province, in national memory the place of Immanuel Kant, honorable nationalism, and military strength. Max Egremont has captured the spirit of the land and its people.” ―Professor Roger Louis

“The experience of reading Max Egremont's wonderful evocation of the final years of East Prussia is like watching a film whose images you know will stay with you for years to come. You stumble out onto the street numb and haunted, unable and reluctant to rejoin the present . . . Its characters represent not only the vanished fringes of Germany, but of that swath of Eastern Europe little known in the West and whose intensity of human experience--from doomed nobility to war-time suffering--now appears almost mythical in scale.” ―Phillip Marsden, Country Life

“Forgotten Land [is] a work of consummate artistry . . . Max Egremont dovetails the stories of individual East Prussians with the wider narrative's tangled skein . . . [Egremont has] a deftly controlling intelligence which draws the reader in before resuming the main thread. The result is continuously satisfying both as a work of art and as a professional work of history.” ―Hywell Williams, The Spectator

“[Egremont's] new book, mixing a personal quest with the strange history of [East Prussia], represents the very best form of travel writing . . . Finally, in a post-totalitarian age, the deeper history of the country is now allowed to raise its head.” ―Antony Beevor, The Mail on Sunday

“In Forgotten Land: Journeys Among the Ghosts of East Prussia, Max Egremont reconstructs the tragic sequence of events that took place in this picturesque region on the Baltic Sea . . . As we delve into the history of East Prussia, the author introduces us to a range of people. Tracking these individuals across time provides us with a nuanced sense of how each person dealt with conflict and turmoil. Some became martyrs, others villains . . . Egremont observes: ‘Terrible things happen to countries--yet most of them can be proud of much of their past; here such pride skulks in secret, as if within a forbidden sect.' Most of the people who were driven out of their East Prussian homeland are gone now. This potent book bestows an overdue honor to their memory.” ―Vick Mickunas, Dayton Daily News

“Max Egremont's idiosyncratic . . . and beautifully written volume makes an ideal guide to this shifting, shadowy realm. In part a piecemeal history of the final half-century of German East Prussia, in part a travelogue through what was left behind, Forgotten Land is gently elegiac. Shifting constantly between present and a variety of pasts, it is as wistful as a flick-through of an old photo album, as melancholy as a rain-spattered northern autumn afternoon . . . On visiting Kaliningrad in the 1960s, the poet Joseph Brodsky wrote that the trees ‘whisper in German.' They don't any more. But Max Egremont heard their last words.” ―Andrew Stuttaford, The Wall Street Journal

“Max Egremont is at his best when describing his travels and conversations. He has a good sense of local atmosphere and a sharp eye for how ‘the tourist trail reshapes the past' . . . The interwoven story lines are artfully managed, the anecdotes are lively, and Egremont's urbane voice carries the reader along.” ―David Blackbourn, Times Literary Supplement

“Egremont eloquently survey the ‘layered history' of a land in which Germans, assorted Slavs, Lithuanians, and even French Huguenots have left their marks. He draws on testimonies of former residents and provides often touching biographical vignettes of some prominent East Prussians in what is a striking yet melancholy tribute to a homeland now consigned to history.” ―Jay Freeman, Booklist

About the Author

Max Egremont was born in 1948 and studied modern history at Oxford University. He is the author of four novels and four biographies, most recently Siegfried Sassoon: A Life (FSG, 2005). Egremont is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Most helpful customer reviews

69 of 77 people found the following review helpful.
"Forgotten Land" Passable Overview of Former East Prussia
By Thomas J. Burke
I picked up Max Ergemont's book "Forgotten Land" after reading a positive review in the "Wall Street Journal." Overall it is a passable overview for readers unfamiliar with the complex and often dark history of the former German province of East Prussia which was divided after WWII by Poland, the USSR, and Lithuania.

The book, however, gets some important details wrong. At various points Ergemont refers to the "Prussians" who inhabited the area prior to the arrival of the Teutonic Knights (or German Order) in 1230 AD. In fact these people were actually called the Prußen or Prussen by the Germans. The term Preußen or Prussian in English came later. The German Order did not lead to "an extinction of the pagan Prussians [sic]" but instead they assimilated in with the Germans and Poles over time.

The author states that "On 6 April 1945, the librarian [Diesch] was on the last ship to leave Pillau..." The last ship to leave the East Prussian port city of Pillau was actually on April 24, 1945, before it fell into Soviet hands the next day. It's a significant error as the port of Pillau was the last escape route for East Prussians and others fleeing the Red Army after land routes were cut off in January of 1945. Some 451,000 refugees and 141,000 were evacuated by the German Navy via Pillau to relative safety in the west. Many more ships and boats made the dangerous journey to pick up refugees and the wounded from April 6 to April 24 despite being under constant attack from the air and from artillery.

Throughout the book the author leans especially heavily on the best-known 20th century East Prussian writer, Countess Maria Dönhoff. Ergemont paraphrases the prolific Dönhoff at length as well as others.

Yet the 1944 massacre of German civilians, including young children and babies, in the frontier town of Nemmersdorf by the Red Army receives little attention. A German counteroffensive retook the town and the atrocities were documented. Word of the Nemmersdorf massacre had the effect of stiffening the resolve of the German troops to continue fighting in a lost cause to buy time for refugees to make their escape. It also created panic among German civilians who were prevented from an orderly evacuation by fanatical Nazi regional and local leaders until it was too late.

The book could have benefited from more detailed maps of the former East Prussia which has just a single one. The photographs are somewhat muddy also in their reproduction.

However, English language books about East Prussia are few and far between. For someone interested in a primer on East Prussian history and culture I still recommend "Forgotten Land." The author is at his best in travelogue fashion, traveling through the modern-day territory that was once East Prussia, including the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad which is back in the news as Russians threaten to move missles facing NATO to the western border of Kaliningrad. He also recounts the brutal treatment faced by those East Prussians unlucky enough to be left behind and fall under Soviet and Polish occupation until they were forcibly deported in 1947.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Three Stars
By Dave
Book really wonders around which was frustrating and made it hard to stay focused.

54 of 60 people found the following review helpful.
Honoring a lost world
By Richard Cumming
When hundreds of thousands of Germans were forced to leave their homeland in East Prussia after World War Two the world remained mostly silent. East Prussia was carved up and made into a Russian enclave and into an expanded Poland. All those Germans had to go and be absorbed into what was left of Germany. Imagine the suffering and the displacement they must have felt? They survived the war only to become exiles.

The author takes readers back through the history of this land, from the Teutonic Knights, through the epic battles, Napolean, Hindenburg, the Wolf's Lair of Adolf Hitler. And we meet some amazing people. Some were good. Some, not so good. The book consists of highly fluid essays. Personalities glide across the pages like ghosts. And they come alive for us as we learn about the tragedy of the people and this place. Gone, but not quite forgotten. A savagely brilliant book.

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! Download Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963, by Susan Sontag

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Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963, by Susan Sontag

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"I intend to do everything...to have one way of evaluating experience―does it cause me pleasure or pain, and I shall be very cautious about rejecting the painful―I shall anticipate pleasure everywhere and find it too, for it is everywhere! I shall involve myself wholly...everything matters!"

So wrote Susan Sontag in May 1949 at the age of sixteen. This, the first of three volumes of her journals and notebooks, presents a constantly and utterly surprising record of a great mind in incubation. It begins with journal entries and early attempts at fiction from her years as a university and graduate student, and ends in 1964, when she was becoming a participant in and observer of the artistic and intellectual life of New York City.

Reborn is a kaleidoscopic self-portrait of one of America's greatest writers and intellectuals, teeming with Sontag's voracious curiosity and appetite for life. We watch the young Sontag's complex self-awareness, share in her encounters with the writers who informed her thinking, and engage with the profound challenge of writing itself―all filtered through the inimitable detail of everyday circumstance.

• Sales Rank: #444271 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-09
• Released on: 2008-12-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.50" h x .75" w x 5.50" l, 1.00 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The first of three planned volumes of Sontag's private journals, this book is extraordinary for all the reasons we would expect from Sontags writing—extreme seriousness, stunning authority, intolerance toward mediocrity; Sontags vulnerability throughout will also utterly surprise the late critic and novelists fans and detractors. At 15, when these journals began, Sontag (1933–2004) already displayed her ferocious intellect and hunger for experience and culture, though what is most remarkable here is watching Sontag grow into one of the century's leading minds. In these carefully selected excerpts (many passages are only a few lines), Sontag details her developing thoughts, her voluminous reading and daily movie-going, her life as a teenage college student at Berkeley discovering her sexuality (bisexuality as the expression of fullness of an individual), and meeting and marrying her professor Philip Rieff, with whom, at the age of 18, she had David, her only child. Most powerful are the entries corresponding to her years in England and Europe, when, apart from Philip and their son, the marriage broke down and Sontag entered intense lesbian relationships that would compel her to rethink her notions of sex, love (physical beauty is enormously, almost morbidly, important to me) and daughter- and motherhood, and all before the age of 30. Watching Sontag become herself is nothing short of cathartic. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Rieff sensitively portrayed revered critic and novelist Sontag during her last days in Swimming in a Sea of Death (2008) and now continues to navigate the great sea of her legacy as editor of her journals. He didn’t want to open his mother’s private life to public eyes, but because her papers are available to scholars, he does so preemptively, granting readers access to the innermost thoughts of a genuine prodigy. In 1948, at age 15, Sontag asks, “And what is it to be young in years and suddenly awakened to the anguish, the urgency of life?” After starting college at 16, she fills her journals with passionate analysis of books, her intellectual ambitions, her struggle to accept her homosexuality, and the ecstasy and torment of her first lesbian relationship. Then, suddenly, this ardent seeker becomes a wife and mother. She loves her son, but marriage does not suit her, and her battle to reclaim her true self is one of several dramatic rebirths punctuating this electrifying record of Sontag striving to become Sontag. Two more volumes are planned. --Donna Seaman

Review
“What ultimately matters about Sontag . . . is what she has defended: the life of the mind, and the necessity for reading and writing as ‘a way of being fully human.'” ―Hilary Mantel, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Most helpful customer reviews

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating
By Steiner
Aside from David Rieff's overly meddlesome editing, this collection of journals is a penetrating, deeply personal portrait of the late Susan Sontag. Perhaps what is most astonishing in this scattering of notes, commentaries, and lists, is Sontag's astonishing precociousness. Her entries at the age of 16 bear the mark of a burgeoning intellectual of the first order. We are granted access (perhaps for the first time)to Sontag's personal life, and given her reclusive nature I couldn't help feeling that I was reading something that should not have been published. Still, what is most interesting here is Sontag, the young collector of ideas and works of art, living life the only way she knew how-with intellectual and moral "seriousness" and undying passion. A fantastically entertaining read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
On Dissociative Faits Accomplis
By Mary E. Sibley
Her son notes that Susan Sontag's diary filled about a hundred notebooks. When she was ill she made sure her son knew where her diaries were kept. The diaries are self-revealing. The son has misgivings.

The diaries are filled with people, social engagements, musings, comments about literature and philosophy. Sontag's favorite high school teacher was blacklisted a few years after she graduated. Susan Sontag wondered how to make anguish metaphysical.

In a somewhat fictionalized version of her life, Sontag asserts she had always had a desire to go to Europe. Watching dancers she opines that every person has a mystery. A friend complains that Susan Sontag is not very sharp about other people, what are they thinking and what are they feeling. Her reading is hoarding.

The ideas and people Susan Sontag selects to focus on are described in lively fashion. The editing is perfect, unobtrusive.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
A great diary, which could have been better edited!
By JaneA
I really loved Sontag’s diary. It reveals her as a passionate intellectual, in pursuit of full living, one could even say of having it all – loving both sexes, reading all that she can get her hands on, coping with her wish to write, become an author herself. She also revealed herself as an uncertain woman, a woman who doubts her choices and has a hard time making decisions. But I really had trouble with the editor’s interventions. Having read a lot of published women’s diaries, I have never seen an editor’s commentary intervene with the author’s text. The editor’s comments should have been written in endnotes or footnotes, and should not have made a mess of the original text. I do not think the editor had bad intentions, but the result is really troubling, and it sometimes even made me mad! Nonetheless, I am looking forward to reading the second part of the journal, As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh.

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** Ebook Peacekeeping: A Novel, by Mischa Berlinski

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THE DARING, EAGERLY ANTICIPATED SECOND NOVEL BY THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD–NOMINATED AUTHOR OF FIELDWORK

Mischa Berlinski’s first novel, Fieldwork, was published in 2007 to rave reviews―Hilary Mantel called it “a quirky, often brilliant debut” and Stephen King said it was “a story that cooks like a mother”―and it was a finalist for the National Book Award. Now Berlinski returns with Peacekeeping, an equally enthralling story of love, politics, and death in the world’s most intriguing country: Haiti.

When Terry White, a former deputy sheriff and a failed politician, goes broke in the 2007–2008 financial crisis, he takes a job working for the UN, helping to train the Haitian police. He’s sent to the remote town of Jérémie, where there are more coffin makers than restaurants, more donkeys than cars, and the dirt roads all slope down sooner or later to the postcard sea. Terry is swept up in the town’s complex politics when he befriends an earnest, reforming American-educated judge. Soon he convinces the judge to oppose the corrupt but charismatic Sénateur Maxim Bayard in an upcoming election. But when Terry falls in love with the judge’s wife, the electoral drama threatens to become a disaster.

Tense, atmospheric, tightly plotted, and surprisingly funny, Peacekeeping confirms Berlinski’s gifts as a storyteller. Like Fieldwork, it explores a part of the world that is as fascinating as it is misunderstood―and takes us into the depths of the human soul, where the thirst for power and the need for love can overrun judgment and morality.

• Sales Rank: #253004 in Books
• Published on: 2016-03-08
• Released on: 2016-03-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.23" h x 1.31" w x 6.34" l, .0 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Review

Praise for Peacekeeping

"Powerfully intelligent . . . A politically sophisticated novel that plants, like pushpins, a handful of memorable characters into Haiti’s arid soil . . . [Peacekeeping's] depths reside in Mr. Berlinski’s rich portrait of a society, and his cool, probing writing about topics like sex, politics, journalism, race, class, agriculture, language and fear . . . Berlinski has a knack for writing short, sharp, surreal scenes . . . There’s a good deal of magic in the way that Mr. Berlinski, in command of fact and emotion, pilots this big novel safely home." ―Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“A formidable piece of work . . . the book’s easy way with local stories and lore bespeaks the familiarity that comes with rich firsthand experience . . . [Berlinski is] a sharp collector of stories, and he has an enjoyable way of threading his narration with story: Berlinski knows how to keep leading us on.” ―James Wood, The New Yorker

“Marvelous . . . Peacekeeping gallops ahead toward the horizon of tragedy, yet the novel is brightened by the author’s sense of the absurdities that saturate an enterprise like a U.N. mission and the weird, byzantine intimacies at the ground level of globalization . . . Peacekeeping, in that sense, is a welcome bearer of enlightenment and a raw reminder of the limits of empathy.” ―Bob Shacochis, The Washington Post

“Mischa Berlinski’s new novel stands out for doing far more than dramatizing news headlines about the beleaguered Caribbean nation . . . Berlinski immerses the reader in an environment so richly detailed that one almost hears the buzz of insects through the pages, but the novel’s plot transcends its tropical setting, resulting in a deeper exploration of what it means to be an observer.” ―Jennifer Kay, Associated Press

"Berlinski's descriptive gifts are terrific . . . The devastating 2010 earthquake naturally figures in the action and elicits Berlinski's most electric, hallucinatory prose . . . Peacekeeping makes you eager for wherever Berlinski will take his own perceptive mode of vision next." ―Michael Upchurch, Chicago Tribune

"Peacekeeping is a dark, funny, powerful read . . . Readers will be glad they made the trip." ―The Christian Science Monitor

“On the troubled half-island of Haiti, love, power, and poverty collide, as do a tough Florida cop, a beautiful singer, politicians, and the United Nations post-2004 peacekeeping mission . . . [Berlinski] is a kind of heir to Graham Greene and Robert Stone, both for his excellent storytelling and for the way it can reveal a bigger picture.” ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Berlinski follows his National Book Award-nominated debut with a compelling tale that again immerses readers in the intrigues of an enthralling locale . . . The Haiti [Berlinski] describes is one in which there are always multiple versions of the truth, some we can bear to tell ourselves, and others we cannot." ―Brendan Driscoll, Booklist (starred review)

“In tones that shift effortlessly from journalistic to atmospheric to deeply, darkly funny, Berlinski (Fieldwork) evokes a very detailed sense of place in his second novel . . . the pages are steeped in verisimilitude . . . This is a fascinating and well-plotted novel.” ―Publishers Weekly

“With the eye of an anthropologist and the heart of a novelist, Berlinski vividly depicts the stark contrast of physical beauty and grinding poverty that is the essence of Haiti.” ―Library Journal

Praise for Fieldwork

“Berlinski [is] an effortless conjurer of convincing details . . . [Fieldwork is] an intoxicating journey filled with missing souls and vengeful spirits.” ―Terry Hong, The Washington Post

“That rare thing―an entertainingly readable novel of ideas . . . Berlinski’s narrative is brilliantly plotted and builds to a shattering but entirely credible conclusion.” ―Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

“An impressive feat of literary acrobatics . . . [A] sad and powerful tale . . . Inspired and courageous.” ―Kevin Smokler, San Francisco Chronicle

“An impeccably structured novel portraying two strikingly different milieus . . . Bravura storytelling . . . Fieldwork [addresses cultural] issues with intelligence, wit and grace. And Berlinski delivers the whole package in prose that . . . is perfection itself.” ―Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times

“[Fieldwork] succeeds in evoking the quixotic appeal of both the anthropological and missionary enterprises―of documenting other cultures and of converting them.” ―The New Yorker

About the Author
Mischa Berlinski is the author of the novel Fieldwork, a finalist for the National Book Award. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Addison M. Metcalf Award.

Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Characters, story, politics- a good read.
By Deanna D. Gaither
It took a little while to "get into it", i.e. I wasn't clear about where the story was going. Once I became invested in the characters and their histories and where this might be leading, I was hooked. The author writes well and is able to draw you in. Also, I found the culture and politics of Haiti and the interactions of those from other countries, to be of great interest. I always however, would caution authors about featuring cultures not their own, as it is hard to know how authentic their view is.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent. It's fast
By Aimee Reker
Excellent. It's fast, culturally-rich, funny and endearing. You're transported to Haiti and into the homes of locals and their favorite, completely obscure places - right out onto their porch for midday lemonade. It's delicious. A story that overflows with strong, capable women and imperfect heroes. It swings from the heights of voodoo, wealth and power to the rape of a person's dignity, security and hope. One of those stories where you find you've fallen in love with all of the characters - even the bad guys! Several lines in the book hit me in the heart and I've carried with me since: A therapist advises a couple that a couple can only have ONE story of the marriage - not two versions that work for each person. One truth. There is also a bit about privilege and realizing you're not as courageous, giving, or just plain "good" as you'd like. Yet, there is not any preaching..."Getting by isn't a sin". And, my favorite passage in the book - "A good story is the greatest of all literary inventions, the only realm in our existence where for every "Why?" there exists a commensurate "Because....". Those two words, "why?" and "because," might be the best thing our species has going for it." Yes. That. THIS story is a great literary invention. Let's hope we don't have to wait so long for a third novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting book as seen from the view of a nameless jounalist, an odd literary device
By Mystic by the Lake
This was a quick read, which strongly reminded me of People Power in the Philippines and the rise of Corazon Aquino to the Presidency of the Philippines, another poor and corrupt nation. Nadia is an enigmatic and mysterious figure, who has no political experience but apparently rode the emotional tides to Haiti's senate. (So this development is not unusual as it's happened in real life.) To me, Terry is a typical macho male stereotype who follows his libido and throws away his marriage. He's not necessarily an admirable figure. The nameless journalist who stands in the background as the scribe is an odd literary device. Even stranger is his ghost wife who is also nameless and is either at work or sleeping. Why not just write the book in third person, instead from the view of this nameless white guy? However, I enjoyed the book and the sad description of Haiti's poverty, which became even worse after the earthquake.

See all 15 customer reviews...

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** Fee Download The Elizabethans, by A. N. Wilson

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The Elizabethans, by A. N. Wilson

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A time of exceptional creativity, wealth creation, and political expansion, the Elizabethan age was also more remarkable than any other for the Technicolor personalities of its leading participants. Apart from the complex character of the Virgin Queen herself, A. N. Wilson's The Elizabethans follows the stories of Francis Drake, a privateer who not only defeated the Spanish Armada but also circumnavigated the globe with a drunken, mutinous crew and without reliable navigational instruments; political intriguers like William Cecil and Francis Walsingham; and Renaissance literary geniuses from Sir Philip Sidney to Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Most crucially, this was the age when modern Britain was born and established independence from mainland Europe―both in its resistance to Spanish and French incursions and in its declaration of religious liberty from the pope―and laid the foundations for the explosion of British imperial power and eventual American domination. An acknowledged master of the all-encompassing single-volume history, Wilson tells the exhilarating story of the Elizabethan era with all the panoramic sweep of his bestselling The Victorians, and with the wit and iconoclasm that are his trademarks.

• Sales Rank: #1163576 in Books
• Published on: 2012-04-24
• Released on: 2012-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.17" h x 1.45" w x 6.48" l, 1.56 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

From Booklist
A political and cultural surveyor of England’s Elizabethan era, the prolific Wilson, author of three dozen novels and histories, brings erudition and judiciousness to this ever-popular topic. Whether plumbing the mind of the Virgin Queen herself, characterizing her courtiers, or capturing England’s social ferment through the prelates, poets, and buccaneers of the period, Wilson exudes energy that matches the excitement and anxiety Elizabethans felt about their times. How individuals responded to precarious exigencies, such as Elizabeth’s succession and adjurations to adhere to Elizabeth’s official church, elicits Wilson’s incisive imaginings of Elizabethan mentalities in a superstitious and violent age. Hence he dwells on the magus John Dee, recounts draconian methods and instances of justice, and addresses harsh English policies in Ireland, stridently supported by the anti-Irish Edmund Spenser. Yet Spenser also wrote the allegorical Faerie Queene and so embodies for Wilson the difficulties contemporary readers confront in understanding complexities within the Elizabethan mind-set. Viewed through the likes of Marlowe and Shakespeare, Drake and Raleigh, the elements that awe or appall moderns become manifest in Wilson’s supple and fluent synthesis. --Gilbert Taylor

Review
“A scholarly, thorough and yet highly approachable overview of the life and times of Queen Elizabeth I...The Elizabethans is written in a style that moves easily along yet does not shy away from decisive analysis and interpretation.” ―Arthur L. Schwarz, Washington Independent Review of Books

About the Author

A. N. Wilson is an award-winning biographer and a celebrated novelist. He lives in North London.

Most helpful customer reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
The Elizabethans by A.N.Wilson is a long glance through the keyhold of history into the age of Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603)
By C. M Mills
This year marks the 60th year jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. She is a great queen and so is her namesake predecessor Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn who was beheaded in 1536. A.N. Wilson looks at Elizabeth's long and successful reign through his new 432 page book "The Elizabethans."
The book is divided into four sections and 29 chapters. The sections are: "The Early Reign"; "1570's"; "1580's" and "The Close of the Reign." The chapters resemble essays on a particular subject of Elizabethan Life. Among the topics covered are
a. The conflicts between Church and State and the duel between Roman Catholic Spain and Church of England Great Britain. The threat of the Spanish Armada is dealt with.
b. The lives of great Elizabethans are explored including Sir Francis Drake; Sir Walter Raleigh; Richard Hooker; Phillip Sydney and Essex (the last of her courtiers who was in love with Elizabeth) and Robert Devereaux her dear Robin.
c. Literary life is examined with a great chapter analyzing "Hamlet" and the London Theatre of Elizabeth's time. We learn about Christopher Marlow, Ben Johnson and Thomas Kyd.
d. The Irish situation rife with rebellion against the English is well covered by Wilson.
Wilson's history is well written, witty and will add to your knowledge and appreciation of the importance of the Elizabethan age. It was a time when the modern world was being born in growing secularism, skepticism, urbanism and a growth in British trade and colonial influence across the globe. Elizabeth was well served by wise counselors such as William Cecil and Francis Walsingham. The British Empire (named by Dr. John Dee) was making the little island off the coast of continental Europe into a world power.
The book may be read, with interest, from cover to cover or the reader may pick and choose. The book is an excellent resource for college courses on English history, Shakespeare or the life of Elizabeth I. Highly recommended!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Informative summary of Elizabethan's reign
By R. S. Wilkerson
The Elizabethans can best be described as a series of essays covering significant events and issues of Elizabethan's reign (1558-1603). There is no unifying theme, except chronology. Wilson divides the book into the successive decades and subdivides each decade into chapters covering the most historically significant events or issues. The lack of a unifying theme makes the book a little hard to follow, although each chapter, often quite detailed, is interesting and informative in its own right. It's targeted at a British audience, not an American one. Wilson seems to see himself as something of an iconoclast, trying to reinterpret some of the received wisdom.

Wilson tries to explain how a small island nation became a world leader in exploration, literary arts, colonization, drama, and a number of other key areas, including political theory, showing through his discussion how Elizabeth's era generated such powerful cultural changes and, through those changes, introduced the modern era. I suggest that the book would have been much improved if he had followed this theme throughout rather than trying to cover so much in such a short book.

The religious conflicts of Elizabeth's era are the most frequently discussed topic and might be as close to a unifying theme as Wilson has. In one way or another, the religious conflicts contributed to the other major events and conflicts. It's not a book for someone new to the Elizabethan period. The information and even many of the digressions are certainly informative, but some grounding in the period is useful if only to help the reader keep track of the players, especially when Wilson starts talking about how his interpretation differs from the standard view. He's a good writer and the essays are sound. I gave the book four stars because it provides a good summary of the Elizabethan era and good introductions to its most significant figures.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Somewhat informative but difficult and scattershot (2.75*s)
By J. Grattan
This moderate length book is not without its insights concerning the Elizabethan period, several of its leading figures, including, of course, Elizabeth, and the principal developments and controversies of the times, but the book is not all that easy to follow, seems rather scattershot, and at times overwhelms with excessive and uneven detail. The author suggests that the Elizabethans had an historical impact that lasted into the 2oth century.

Perhaps the dominant problem of the entire period was brought about by the refusal of Henry VIII to accede to the dictates of the Pope, and thereby forming his own Church of England in the 1530's. From that point, depending on who was king or queen, England was divided into believers or non-believers; the punishments for being on the wrong side were nothing short of cruel. Second, the Irish resented British involvement in their affairs every bit as much as they did in the 20th century and had to be frequently suppressed. At times Elizabeth took a somewhat moderate approach to these "difficulties," but she could also be harsh in her judgments.

The author spends a great deal of time detailing the rising supremacy of the English on the seas, which not only enabled success in colonization, but also in the slave trade and in piracy. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 confirmed that supremacy. Elizabeth benefited from a succession of able administrators, as well as from more heroic individuals who advanced England's causes on the seas and in battles.

While she was the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth was also a notorious flirt, having several favorites during her reign. It is difficult to say what the exact nature of her relations were with these men, but it is clear that she was extremely unforgiving when they forsook her, moving on to other women. It is clear that Elizabeth was quite sharp, speaking several languages, but she had a noted temper. Anyone crossing her could easily end up rotting in the Tower of London. Or in the case of Mary, Queen of the Scots, be kept under house arrest for years, before being beheaded.

The Elizabethan period was one where writing began to flourish primarily in the form of poetry and plays. Yet authors were subject to the restrictions of the times, especially in regard to religious orthodoxy and in criticism of the current regime. The punishments for violators ranged from fines, presses destroyed, hands cut off, and beheading. The author also finds it worth mentioning that the Elizabethans were inordinately preoccupied with sex, both in their writings and in practice.

The book is not uninformative, but there is no recognizable systematic approach - way too much jumping around in both time and place. And one is inundated with names. Individuals are interchangeably referred to not only by their actual names, but also by their title. And most of them seem to be related in some manner. Charts are needed to keep up with them. Despite all of the place names, not one map is included.

Perhaps the Elizabethans did have multi-century impact, but it seems rather evident that Elizabeth's regime had completely run out of energy by the time of her death in 1603. The book is a tossup as to whether it is more informative or irritating. One suspects that more readable, comprehensive histories exist about the period.

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# PDF Ebook Authority: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy), by Jeff VanderMeer

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After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X―a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization―has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.
John Rodrigues (aka "Control") is the Southern Reach's newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area X. But with each discovery he must confront disturbing truths about himself and the agency he's pledged to serve.
In Authority, the second volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, Area X's most disturbing questions are answered . . . but the answers are far from reassuring.

• Sales Rank: #14119 in Books
• Brand: Vandermeer, Jeff
• Published on: 2014-05-06
• Released on: 2014-05-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 7.51" h x .97" w x 5.00" l, .54 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Booklist
In the second installment of the Southern Reach trilogy, Vandermeer continues to unravel the mysteries surrounding Area X, an isolated dystopia where unknown powers either disappear its inhabitants or return them to humanity brainwashed and useless. The sole surviving member of the twelfth expedition undergoes questioning by one of the government’s most experienced investigators, a man named Control. Control is sent to the Southern Reach to investigate the disappearance of its director into Area X and to interrogate the psychologist who returned from the expedition; but while he’s there he discovers the true dysfunction of the scientists and staff studying Area X. Authority should not be read in isolation from the first installment of the trilogy, Annihilation (2014), because much of the backstory of the Southern Reach expeditions is explained in the earlier volume. Those familiar with the series will understand the subtle foreshadowing that points to an action-packed conclusion to the trilogy. Compelling science fiction for those who can’t get enough dystopia. --Heather Paulson

Review

“Authority isn't a book that just picks up where the last one left off. Instead, it's packed full of new pleasures, not only new characters and settings but whole new kinds of writing. If Annihilation is an expedition novel painted with a thick coat of weird, then Authority is a spy novel given the same dark lacquer . . . Which makes me desperate to know what the third book is going to be like--whether it will be some mixture of the two, Jurassic Park meets James Bond, or some third thing entirely.” ―Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

“The great thing about Annihilation is the strange, elusive, and paranoid world that it creates. The great thing about Authority is the way it takes the premises that we think we know about that world and turns them inside out, destabilizing everything in a way that makes it even more strange and elusive, and makes us the ones who feel paranoid. A stunning book, followed by a second stunning book that makes you rethink the first.” ―Brian Evenson, author of Last Days with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“A clear triumph for VanderMeer, who after numerous works of genre fiction has suddenly transcended genre with a compelling, elegant and existential story of far broader appeal.” ―Lydia Millet, Los Angeles Times with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Unsettling and un-put-downable--like an old-fashioned adventure story, only weirder, beautifully written, and not at all old-fashioned.” ―Karen Joy Fowler, BookPage with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Chilling.” ―Julie Bosman, The New York Times with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Ingenious.” ―Laura Miller, Salon with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Enthralling.” ―Tara Wanda Merrigan, GQ with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Fans of the Lost TV series . . . this one is for you.” ―Molly Driscoll, The Christian Science Monitor

“[Annihilation] will make you believe in the power of science mysteries again.” ―Annalee Newitz, io9 with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Successfully creepy.” ―Sara Sklaroff, The Washington Post with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Fascinating.” ―John Domini, Miami Herald with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“[Annihilation] teases and terrifies and fascinates.” ―Kevin Nguyen, Grantland with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Dazzling.” ―Peter Straub, author of Lost Boy, Lost Girl with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Haunted and haunting.” ―Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

“Original and beautiful, maddening and magnificent.” ―Warren Ellis with praise for THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

About the Author
Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning novelist and editor. His fiction has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in the Library of America's American Fantastic Tales and multiple year's-best anthologies. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife.

Most helpful customer reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
Surealism without much suspense
By Ian K.
As soon as I finished Jeff VanderMeer's novel Annihilation, I bought the sequel, Authority. Soon after it arrived on my Kindle reader, I read Authority.

In Annihilation Jeff VanderMeer's writing really shined. His descriptions of the natural habitat and the artifacts in Area X were lyrical and strong. I can still see the "tower" and the lighthouse in my mind's eye. This was combined with the lurking dread of the Biologist exploring Area X, which provided the drive for VanderMeer's surrealistic plot.

Authority is told from the point of view of Control (the alias used by John Rodrigues) who is the newly appointed director of the Southern Reach, which is a sub-agency (of Central) that is assigned to research Area X.

VanderMeer's writing is still good, but the lyricism of describing the pristine wilderness of Area X is replaced by the claustrophobic description of the Southern Reach and its bureaucratic battles. The surrealism which is the hallmark of VanderMeer's writing dominates Authority. There were places where an event took place only to be explained in retrospect, which at times forced me to reread sections. In other places I found that some plot elements were not explained at all (what happens to Controls Mother?) Perhaps these plot elements will be picked up in Acceptance (which I have also ordered). The three books have the feel of a single large novel that is being published in three pieces.

By the end of the novel it is difficult to completely understand Control's motivations. Like the Biologist in Annihilation he's been so manipulated by both Central and, perhaps, Area X itself that it's hard to understand why he is doing what he does. The strangeness of VanderMeer's surreal plotting might also be sloppy plot construction. Although a final judgement on this will have to wait until I finish Acceptance.

The middle of a story is frequently not as good as the start or the end. Annihilation was so good that I have to hope that Authority is just such a plot bridge.

If you liked Annihilation then Authority is worth reading. It's certainly not a bad book and it provides new information about Area X and the Southern Reach. But I did not find the book as breathtaking as Annihilation. Having crossed this plot bridge, I hope that Acceptance will be as spectacular as the start of the series.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent Middle Book
By S. E. Brinamon
Whereas Annihilation took you through the creepy landscape Area X, full of forests and overgrown moss and lighthouses and tower/tunnnels, Authority takes you through the creepy landscape of the Southern Reach, full of dank examination rooms and locked drawers and cluttered offices. Right away, Annihilation will answer some of your most burning questions from Annihilation, but immediately raise more. If you are on the fence about whether to continue this trilogy, rest assured that Authority is not just a continuation of Annihilation. Rather, it's a complication of it, a counterpoint.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Slow and, dare I say, a bit dull after the first book
By William C. Geoghegan
After the eerie mood and fast-paced drama of "Annihilation" I found "Authority" a bit of a let down. In fact, very little in terms of drama happens in this second book, just office politics and a backstory that involves a controlling mother. I found enough of interest to finish the book but, like I said, parts of it were just a slog, and I kept waiting in anticipation for something a little more pulse pounding.

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? Download PDF Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel, by Ishmael Beah

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Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel, by Ishmael Beah

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A haunting, beautiful first novel by the bestselling author of A Long Way Gone


When Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone was published in 2007, it soared to the top of bestseller lists, becoming an instant classic: a harrowing account of Sierra Leone's civil war and the fate of child soldiers that "everyone in the world should read" (The Washington Post). Now Beah, whom Dave Eggers has called "arguably the most read African writer in contemporary literature," has returned with his first novel, an affecting, tender parable about postwar life in Sierra Leone.
At the center of Radiance of Tomorrow are Benjamin and Bockarie, two longtime friends who return to their hometown, Imperi, after the civil war. The village is in ruins, the ground covered in bones. As more villagers begin to come back, Benjamin and Bockarie try to forge a new community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but they're beset by obstacles: a scarcity of food; a rash of murders, thievery, rape, and retaliation; and the depredations of a foreign mining company intent on sullying the town's water supply and blocking its paths with electric wires. As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order, they're forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future alike.
With the gentle lyricism of a dream and the moral clarity of a fable, Radiance of Tomorrow is a powerful novel about preserving what means the most to us, even in uncertain times.
Named one of the Christian Science Monitor's best fiction books of 2014

• Sales Rank: #536304 in Books
• Published on: 2014-01-07
• Released on: 2014-01-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.46" h x 1.02" w x 6.21" l, .82 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, January 2014: Ishmael Beah's 2007 memoir A Long Way Gone described Beah's own experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. In Radiance of Tomorrow, his first novel, he examines what happens when the survivors of war try to return home. At first the refugees arrive like a trickle to their hometown, straggling into a place populated only by bones. Former enemies learn to live together, a school is established, and they begin to rebuild their village and their lives. But the world has changed since they were last there--the clash between tradition and the encroaching world is like a new war, particularly when a mining company moves into town. This novel hits several superlative notes: in the details that Beah chooses to share, in the characters he uses to tell the story, and in the universality of his tale. It is a memorable and emotionally resonant first novel, one that may mark the start of a major new novelist. --Chris Schluep

From Booklist
In his best-selling A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (2007), Beah wrote of his traumatic experience as victim and perpetrator in Sierra Leone’s civil war. Now he works with Human Rights Watch and UNICEF in New York, and in this searing first novel, he tells of a young immigrant returning with his family to his native village seven years after the recent civil war. He finds both hope and horror, the latter driven by the overwhelming internal corruption, the former by the resilience of the people he encounters. He sees skulls and chopped hands, the remains of massacre. But there is the wonder of clean drinking water. A foreign company’s diamond mining, supported by the government, is leaving the village people displaced, houses shattered, the air thick with pollution, ancient burial grounds destroyed. A parent must see her child go to bed hungry, night after night. How much will people do for jobs to feed their families? The power of the story is in the close-up, heartbreaking detail of the struggle for survival, the cruelty, and also the kindness. --Hazel Rochman

Review

“Written with the moral urgency of a parable and the searing precision of a firsthand account . . . There is an allegorical richness to Beah's storytelling and a remarkable humanity to his characters. We see tragedy arriving not through the big wallops of war, but rather in corrosive increments.” ―Sara Corbett, The New York Times Book Review

“In his 2007 memoir, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah writes of those waiting for war to invade their lives: "Families who had walked hundreds of miles told how relatives had been killed and their houses burned. Some people felt sorry for them and offered them places to stay, but most of the refugees refused, because they said the war would eventually reach their town." The decade-long war in Sierra Leone between government forces and Liberian-funded rebels did eventually reach Beah's and other towns, and he was swept up in the conflict as a child soldier, a story he vividly recounts in his memoir. This time Beah has written an actual novel--his first--not about the war itself, but about its aftermath. What happens when those who have committed atrocities or have been the victims of them return to what is left of their homes? We get our answer via several residents of the devastated Sierra Leonean town of Imperi, where an older couple, Mama Kadie and Pa Moiwa, and a young schoolteacher named Bockarie are among the first to return. Recalling the Friday afternoon the town was attacked, they remember the rocket-propelled grenades that brought down the chief's compound, heralding a new order while "killing many people, whose flesh sizzled from the explosions." Those who escaped, and eventually made it through the war in good enough shape to return, considered themselves lucky, save for the survivor's guilt that forced them to seek comfort, even in the most horrifying places. Looking at the piles of human bones that still litter the town, Mama Kadie imagines that she might be able to identify the remains of her grandchildren among them. The pain of not knowing whether or not they had survived the war is too much to bear and she wants some finality. The town eventually falls into some kind of routine. Other survivors flood in from refugee camps in neighboring countries. Burned houses are rebuilt and a school is opened, allowing Bockarie to teach there. The notion that the town might return to its old, familiar ways soon vanishes, however, when a mining company, in search of rutile--used as a pigment in paint, plastic, and food--sets up shop, polluting the town's waterways. Bockarie's best friend also dies a senseless death while working at the mine. Bockarie eventually decides to return with his friend's wife to her hometown, only to find life even more unbearable there, in the shadow of a diamond mine. This leaves only Freetown, with its Chinese-run hotels, drug runners, and "false life" Europe- and U.S.-based returnees, who missed the war all together. This part of the novel leaves us wondering what might happen next to some characters to whom we've grown attached. However, as Beah reminds us on the book's final page, "It is the end, or maybe the beginning of another story.... Every story is a birth." In Radiance of Tomorrow, Beah has produced a formidable and memorable novel--a story of resilience and survival, and, ultimately, rebirth.” ―Edwid

“UNICEF Ambassador Beah writes lyrically and passionately about ugly realities as well as about the beauty and dignity of traditional ways.” ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“In 2007, Beah woke us from our slumbers with A Long Way Gone . . . Here, in his first novel . . . our heroes (like Beah himself) stay radiant to the end.” ―Library Journal

“Everyone in the world should read this book. Not just because it contains an amazing story, or because it's our moral, bleeding-heart duty, or because it's clearly written. We should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human.” ―The Washington Post on A Long Way Gone

“A breathtaking and unselfpitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out. It's a truly riveting memoir.” ―Time on A Long Way Gone

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Just ok
By Amazon Customer Donna Rae Stevens
This book started out strong but kind of flagged half way through
A disappointment after the amazing first book by this author

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Radiance
By booknblueslady
Any one who has read Ishmael Beah's heartbreaking memoir A Long Way Gonecan attest to the fact that he is a compelling author. Having read his memoir, I had a great curiosity about his recently published novel about Sierra Leone. I wondered what kind of novelist he would be and now that I know I hope he continues writing both fiction and nonfiction as he has a gift.

In the Author's Note he explains the great tradition of storytelling in his native country and that his mother tongue Mende has a poetic way of speaking both of which he hopes to use in Radiance of Tomorrow:

Mende, is very expressive, very figurative, and when I write, I always struggle to find the English equivalent of things that I really want to say in Mende. For example, in Mende, you wouldn't say "night came suddenly"; you would say "the sky rolled over and changed its sides."

Beah is successful in his use of both the story telling techniques and his use of language it does in fact lull the reader, letting one forget the horrors of war and look for the radiance of tomorrow. This is a story of a people returning to their village and rebuilding, attempting to leave behind the sorrows and reclaim their home. The first to return to the village of Imepri are the elders, Mama Kadie and Pa Moiwa. The book begins:

"She was the first to arrive where it seemed the wind no longer exhaled. Several miles from town, the trees had entangled one another. Their branches grew toward the ground, burying the leaves in the soil to blind their eyes so the sun would not promise them tomorrow with its rays. It was only the path that was reluctant to cloak its surface completely with grasses, as though it anticipated it would soon end its starvation for the warmth of bare feet that gave it life.

The long and winding paths were spoken of as "snakes" that one walked upon to encounter life or to arrive at the places where life lived. Like snakes, the paths were now ready to shed their old skins for new ones, and such occurrences take time with the necessary interruptions. Today, her feet began one of those interruptions. It may be that those whose years have many seasons are always the first to rekindle their broken friendship with the land, or it may just have happened this way."

I wanted so much for the sorrows that I read of to be over. During the first third of the book, I found myself sobbing and yet so respectful of the spirit of these people who held so true to their essence through such difficult times, who revered their elders and look to them for guidance, who remained strangely quiet regarding the horrors of war to their children who were too young to know.

This time though the danger comes not from war but from a corporation involved in rutile mining, which is indeed a growing industry in Sierra Leone. We see the ways in which this corporation attacks the life and culture that the people of Imperi have so carefully rebuilt:

"The elders shake their heads with doubt, they knew they had to try, as there was more at stake than tradition. Tradition can live on only if those carrying it respect it--and live in conditions that allow the traditions to survive. Otherwise, traditions have a way of hiding inside people and leaving only dangerous footprints of confusion."

The story is both compelling and worrisome. It is not for someone who needs all the strings neatly tied and of course they are not neatly tied in Sierra Leone. I cannot help but admire Beah's skill as an author and sincerely hope to be reading more from him.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
New beginnings
By Friederike Knabe
"They laughed, both knowing that part of the old ways remained, though they were fragile. At the end of their laughter, words were exchanged, briefly, leaving many things unsaid for another day that continued to be another and yet another…"

Mama Kadie cautiously enters the central path of her village, not sure what to expect, pondering on what has remained and who is still there or has come back like she does now. After the traumas, losses and devastation of the war she experiences profound emotions as she walks barefoot on the local soil, smells the scents of the land and watches and listens for every sound in the bushes. What will life have in store for her? The opening pages of Ishmael Beah's debut novel, "Radiance of Tomorrow", are achingly beautiful; his voice gentle and affecting, his deep emotional connection palpable with what he describes so colourfully. Having experienced international acclaim with his memoir, "A Long Way Gone", which recounts the story of a child soldier in Sierra Leone, with his new book he returns to his homeland, sharing with his readers the demanding and difficult path that the local people have to follow in their recovery from the brutal war and its many losses in life and livelihood. There is hope – radiance – for a better future but there are also many sacrifices to make: forgiving is not forgetting; rebuilding on ruins, literally, on the bones of loved ones is probably one of the most haunting challenges. Transposing the facts and realities of the aftermath of the Sierra Leonean war into a fictional framework carries its own challenges. At the same time, it gives the author a greater freedom of expression for exploring the tragedies and recoveries. Benefiting from his mother tongue's rich figurative language, Mende, Beah also conveys to us something of the soul of his home and way of thinking. In his language there is a deep connection between land, nature, cosmos and people that speaks through his wording and that also characterizes his in depth developed protagonists.

The first person Mama Kadie meets as she walks along the central paths of the village is Pa Moiwa, who resting on a log in the village square. Much time will be needed to absorb the enormity of what has happened, evidence of violence and death are visible everywhere. Pa Moiwa slowly turns around on hearing the voice of his old friend: his only question is "how she had brought her spirit into town and which route she had taken." "… I walked the path, as that is the way in my heart." There will be many days for them to carefully and gently peel away the layers that have hidden their experiences of the recent past. Every day more people arrive: returning displaced locals and desperate refugees from other parts of the country where survival is even more precarious. Mama Kadie, Pa Moiwa and, later, Pa Kainesi play a central role in the community, respected by everybody as the "elders". Young and old sit together in the village centre after a day's struggle to repair houses, fetch water and find food to cook; the elders are telling stories of the past with the children listening attentively: "It isn't about knowing the most stories, child. It is about carrying the ones that are most important and passing them along [from one generation to the next]…." Meanwhile, the younger adults sit apart working on plans how to find work and supplies to care for their families, among them Bockarie and Benjamin, both teachers, who will do everything in their power to ensure a brighter future for their children and others in the community.

Among the returnees are several former child soldiers and lost orphans who prefer to stay at a distance from the villagers but form an important component in the rebuilding of the village as all are coping with the emotional scars of their and the villagers' recent experiences. They form a small community of their own, led by the enigmatic "Colonel", a shadowy silent figure, who, nonetheless, finds ways to express his growing allegiance to his protégés and the villagers in unexpected ways.
There is a moment of almost idyllic peace in the community, but as is often the case in real life… it is the calm ahead of the storm. And the storm comes in the form of huge trucks and machinery and shouting people who appear to come from another world… The small mining company that had operated in the area before the war has come back with ambitious new owners and investors, who, with little regard to the needs and traditions of the villages nearby, take over the precious farmland and water resources for an ever expanding open-pit mining operation. The company, endorsed by the provincial politicians, is dividing the community physically and emotionally. Their behaviour provokes not only the elders. They bring the worst of city life into this remote region of the country. On the other hand they become the only employer in the villages around. Conflicts are unavoidable and there can only be few winners.

Ishmael Beah's novel is beautifully written, absorbing and engaging at many levels. His central characters stay in your mind long after you closed the book. He succeeds in telling a story that balances humanity and grace on the one hand with the harsh reality of life in a country that has come out of a brutal civil war and is faced with a devastated economy. Traditional ways of life are challenged and as readers we can only hope that the wisdom of the elders can continue in the mind of the younger generations and that they will learn from the many stories their culture and communities have to offer. [Friederike Knabe]

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