Europe Books

It is 1741; Otis Gardner is the Coram Man, a cruel, sadistic trader who makes his living from the disposal of unwanted infants and by selling older children into slavery. Together with his half-wit son Meshak, he travels from Gloucester to London, collecting children under false promises of delivering them to the famous hospice founded by Thomas Coram.

Alexander Ashbrook, disinherited heir to a large estate, is unaware of the existence of his illegitimate son Aaron, a child given away in infancy and brought up in the Coram hospice to avoid scandal. Aaron, also oblivious to his father's identity, befriends Toby, a young boy saved from an African slave ship, and the childlike Mish who brought him to the orphanage all those years ago.

Set in eighteenth century Britain, "Coram Boy" is an epic tale of good and evil and the relationships between a father and a son. The plot is complicated yet compelling enough to make this novel impossible to put down. Jamila Gavin weaves a powerful story that explores the darker side of life in the 1700s and which combines romance, history, tragedy and hope. Beautifully written and filled with a cast of colourful and memorable characters to bring this eighteenth century world to life, Coram Boy is both a unique and special book. Although difficult to get into, this is ultimately an extremely rewarding read that has a wide appeal, although some readers may find the content of infanticide disturbing. Overall, this is definitely a five star book, and I would highly recommend it to both teens and adults .

~Jenna~

Otis Gardiner is a peddler in London who persuades young women to pay him for bringing their babies to the famous Coram Hospital, a place where unwanted children can receive proper education and have a successful future. However, after Otis got paid, he would kill these babies and later on blackmail the women who entrusted him with their babies for more money. His son, Meshak, saved a baby that he was about to kill and escaped to the Coram Hospital and stayed there for the next eight years. The baby was named Aaron Dangersfield and was very talented in music, like his father, Alexander Ashbrook. Alexander discovered that Aaron is actually his son in a meeting with his wife and sister, but Aaron was already being sent on a ship to America to be sold as a slave. Someone rescued Aaron from the ship shortly after it parted. Finally, Alexander reconciled with his long lost son.
I think this is an unbelievably awesome book. It involved many characters that each has their own small story in this book. For example, Aaron Dangersfield¡¦s foster father is a simpleton, and he often dreamed of living with the kind angles in the chapels away from his cruel father. Aaron¡¦s real father was kicked out of his family for living a life as a musician instead of learning how to take care and prosper from his father¡¦s estates. Furthermore Aaron¡¦s best friend, Toby, is an African, and he was being treated like a rare, dark-skin plaything more than a human. All of these small stories add up to be what Aaron has to experience or discover, which is what makes Coram Boy extra interesting.
My favorite part of this book is the epilogue. In the epilogue, Meshak was finally able to be with his imaginary angels after all the suffering he went through. He is a simpleton and was being treated cruelly by his father ever since he was born. He doesn¡¦t really mind being mistreated by his father, but he does feel mad when he saw with his very own eyes that the girl he admired fell in love with somebody else. Therefore, he saved that girl¡¦s baby boy and loved him like his son. At the end, when even the boy that he cared about so much went away, he asked his imaginary angels, ¡§Can I be dead now?¡¨ With merely five short words, so much is being remembered and expressed.

Otis Gardiner is a peddler in London who persuades young women to pay him for bringing their babies to the famous Coram Hospital, a place where unwanted children can receive proper education and have a successful future. However, after Otis got paid, he would kill these babies and later on blackmail the women who entrusted him with their babies for more money. His son, Meshak, saved a baby that he was about to kill and escaped to the Coram Hospital and stayed there for the next eight years. The baby was named Aaron Dangersfield and was very talented in music, like his father, Alexander Ashbrook. Alexander discovered that Aaron is actually his son in a meeting with his wife and sister, but Aaron was already being sent on a ship to America to be sold as a slave. Someone rescued Aaron from the ship shortly after it parted. Finally, Alexander reconciled with his long lost son.
I think this is an unbelievably awesome book. It involved many characters that each has their own small story in this book. For example, Aaron Dangersfield¡¦s foster father is a simpleton, and he often dreamed of living with the kind angles in the chapels away from his cruel father. Aaron¡¦s real father was kicked out of his family for living a life as a musician instead of learning how to take care and prosper from his father¡¦s estates. Furthermore Aaron¡¦s best friend, Toby, is an African, and he was being treated like a rare, dark-skin plaything more than a human. All of these small stories add up to be what Aaron has to experience or discover, which is what makes Coram Boy extra interesting.
My favorite part of this book is the epilogue. In the epilogue, Meshak was finally able to be with his imaginary angels after all the suffering he went through. He is a simpleton and was being treated cruelly by his father ever since he was born. He doesn¡¦t really mind being mistreated by his father, but he does feel mad when he saw with his very own eyes that the girl he admired fell in love with somebody else. Therefore, he saved that girl¡¦s baby boy and loved him like his son. At the end, when even the boy that he cared about so much went away, he asked his imaginary angels, ¡§Can I be dead now?¡¨ With merely five short words, so much is being remembered and expressed.

Books are like baskets, with sturdy sides and empty spaces in the centers to fill. It's rare to find a novel so well-crafted that its story fills the basket up to the brim, but I have. Coram Boy is one that shines because of its powerful story, life-like characters, and the many emotions portrayed throughout the tale.
Alexander is a rich, talented choirboy who spends his life enveloped in music. Thomas, his best friend, comes from a poorer family, but is also devoted to melodies. There is one difference: Thomas is free to become a musician, but Alex can only look forward to becoming the master of his huge mansion. When Thomas is invited to spend the summer at his friend's house, he discovers that Alex holds a great passion for Melissa, the maid's lovely daughter, while at the same time dislikes his father for not letting him follow his musical talent. However, none of them know that another person trails Melissa too: Meshak, the unloved son of a man who makes money out of selling babies to become slaves. To everybody's shock, Alex runs away from his father's grip to become a musician, and Melissa, barely a child herself, gives birth to his baby. The baby is handed over to the `slave-dealer' secretly, but Meshak snatches it away, and cares for his angel's child as if it were his own.
Eight years later, the child, called Aaron, is taken as the now famous Alexander Ashbrook's apprentice without knowing that they are related. Meshak's father is still on the lookout for young boys and girls to become slaves. He gets his hand on Aaron and plans to ship him across the sea. Will the innocent Aaron become a slave? Will he find out that his mother and father are still alive? Will Alexander discover that he has a son to love?
In a way, the characters in the novel are examples of people in real life. There are conflicts between fathers and sons, between girls and boys, and between best friends. These work out in the end because the characters feel a push to make things right again, even if it's a few years late. You can also learn numerous life lessons from this book. I found out that people with bad intentions never win in the long run; their bad hearts stick out like a piece of coal in gold! I also learned that you should always be optimistic, because you never know if your life will turn a bend that will change your life forever!
Out of the many characters in the book, whether old or young, I must say that my favourite one was Thomas, Alexander's friend. He felt sympathy for Alex when his family problems became bigger and helped him without any questions. He raised the suspicion of Meshak's father when many children started disappearing. He started the question of whether Aaron was his best friend's son. He raised many spirits with his sense of humour. Without him, how could the story have gone on?
Why did I choose this book and not a fat juicy one then? I leafed through the novel and discovered that it was the proud winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award, and decided to give it a try. Even though the novel isn't as thick as some as the other ones, it's packed with precious lessons for life and stories you'll never forget!
I love this book with all my heart; I love the plot and the way the ending is a complete and breathtaking surprise! I recommend this book to the whole world, because everyone on Earth deserves such a great book!

Set in the eighteenth century, Coram Boy is a story of love, crime, tragedy, heartbreak and miracles. It is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read and one of my all time favourites. I am always reading it aloud, just because the words are so nice. The characters are very clear and made to love or hate. The author shows such depth of knowledge and expresses so much emotion! It is a complex, exciting novel and the end will make you cry! I love it to bits. I'm sure you will to.

An investor friend recommended this book to me. I have to admit, I initially expected that it would be somewhat difficult to read. But I was pleasantly surprised by Koraia's clear writing style.

He gives a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the European banking system and its underlying economic levers and switches.

If you do any kind of financial sector investing outside of the U.S., you'd do well to give this one a read through.

After I read the book, I decided to write my first amazon review (though I am not big fan of surveys/reviews)
I think this is interesting book, worth to read and to own.
Good material, analysis and very well explained.

PS.
I saw some noncritical typos, I hope the author will keep it in mind for the next book.

Solid empirical underpinning, yet clear and concise enough reading for even the non-economist interested in the labyrinth of European banking.

The book gives a very good analysis of the mechanisms involved in the financial crashes of Eastern European banks. It is probably one of the most effective attempts to analyze the East-European "Banking Crisis" - and a similar crisis in the USA known as "Mortgage Crisis".

We have recently seen many (fatal) problems occurring in banks in the USA. We've seen bankruptcies on all levels - from individuals to businesses and banks. Where did the money go? You will have much better grasp of the answer to this question after reading this book.

Highly recommended! Five stars!

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book.

It was captivating (a very good thing in educational texts), clear, and well researched.

A very good introduction to its subject area and worth every penny.

1970's "The Crofter and the Laird" is John McPhee's graceful account of an extended stay on the Scottish island of Colonsay, ancestral home to his clan and a living fragment of an almost feudal lifestyle in the 20th Century.

Author John McPhee is rightly known for his keen observation, his simple but highly descriptive prose, and his ability to capture a sense of place. These skills are very evident in his clear-eyed yet sympathetic narrative of a vanishing culture in the Hebrides. The residents work small crofts, or rented farms, for a thin but apparently rewarding living in the solitude of a remote and beautiful island. The laird, owner of the island, lives in England but visits every summer. The crofters and the laird are enmeshed in an ancient legal tradition of mutual obligation, an anachronism which neither party was quite yet prepared to give up when McPhee stayed on Colonsay.

Colonsay's culture sits on a couple of millennia of history contributed by Picts, Celts, Scots, Vikings, and others. Some of the best parts of McPhee's narrative are his observations of the ancient remnants, such as ruined chapels, and the myths, stories, and customs forwarded by the islanders. Every physical feature on the island seems to have a name and a story.

The center of McPhee's narrative is his host on the island, one Donald McNeill, who pursues a variety of vocations to feed his family and make a living, and who provides insight into a close-knit society that regards "incomers" with some suspicion. McNeill is entirely comfortable in his life, appreciative of his family's long continuity on the island, yet honest about the hard work required by what is nearly subsistance living.

This book is highly recommended as a fascinating and enjoyable read on a small fragment of a vanishing island culture in a place time seemed almost to have forgotten.

The finely detailed observations and vivid turn-of-words which we have come to know so well from McPhee's books on North America and its geological history, is applied here with great skill in this look at the tiny Scottish island of Colonsay and its inhabitants. The small population of under 150 people can trace ancestry to two castes or clans. Most are crofters or farmers. Some are true islanders with family roots going back hundreds of years; others are "incomers". It's not a derogatory term but simply another social distinction. Then there's THE CROFTER AND THE LAIRD. McPhee offers a distillation of this social concoction. "The usual frictions, gossip, and intense social espionage that characterize life in a small town are so grandly magnified...everyone is many things to everyone else, and is encountered daily in a dozen guises. Enmeshed together, the people of the island become one another. Friend and enemy dwell in the same skin."

McPhee deals with his usual areas of interest such as the environmental past of the island, but its the people that fascinate him. Here it's also a little closer to home as Colonsay is the home of McPhee's ancestors. The book is as much a narrative of the strife torn history of clans as it is one Americans' exploration of the "sentimental myth" that he attaches to his Scottish surname. McPhee quickly sees that, rather than myth, the clan is as real to Scots as it ever was. This is only amplified in a feudal and cloistered social setting such as on Colonsay.

The McPhee's (or Macafee, MacPhee, Macheffie, or MacDuffie, as the various septs are known) are part of the ancient clan MacFie. They're Celtic, and the Gaelic origin of the name means "son of the Dark Fairy or Elf". Such fairy-tale-like legends seem incongruous when set against the treacherous and bloody reality of clan history. The McPhee's are a "broken clan", the last chieftan was murdered by the MacDonald's in the 17th century. The MacDonald's however got their comeuppance in the way of the clans. A group of MacDonald's were butchered in their sleep by the Campbell's of Argyll in the Glencoe Massacre of 1692.

And just to show that clan history dies very hard, many Scots, even until today, when pressed just a little bit can usually find something uncharitable to say about my Campbell clan. Time and geographical distance may make the clans of only historical interest to McPhee, myself, and other North Americans with Scots ancestors. In Scotland it's a lot more real and present, and this wonderful book gives us a slice of that life.

I really enjoyed this book. It was refreshing and light but great in detail. John McPhee explains his move from the U.S. with his wife and 4 daughters back to his Great Grandfather's ancestral home on the island of Colonsay in the Hebrides of Scotland. The population is around 150 and he learns all about the small town life in a feudal environment. McPhee talks about everything from farmers, crofters, and general laborers and their daily lives on the island. He also shifts from what he sees and experiences with first person gossip and comments from the islanders to stories and legends from the island's and his clan's past.

All the islanders talk of the Laird Strathcona who owns everything. Then John meets him and sees he is just a minor peer in the Scottish Court and more of a landlord trying to bring the island of Colonsay a little out of the past. The book is lightly sprinkled with simple sketches of the island which brings everything together.

A really enjoyable read for anyone with Scottish roots or just interested in Scottish life and history. Not everyone is descended from Scottish Kings and famous knights. Most of us are of the poorer stock like those portrayed in this book. I am even more proud of them now.

THE BOOK HELP INSPIRE ME, MY SON, AND BROTHER TO GO TO COLONSAY IN THE SPRING OF 1998. MOST OF THE PEOPLE YOU WROTE ABOUT ARE DEAD. HOWEVER CHARLIE MCKINNON AND HIS WIFE, GIBBIE MCNEIL, KEITH RUTHERFORD, AND A FEW MORE ARE STILL LIVING. I HAVE WRITTEN AN ACCOUNT OF MY VISIT AND WILL MAKE IT AVAILABLE TO THE AUTHOR IS HE WISHES. LAN NA LEF. JERRY D. MCAFEE

My family also originates on Colonsay, and we go back to visit occasionally. We were asked if we were related to John McPhee, because our name is McAfee. We were told that it was a good thing we weren't, because John had given away more secrets than the islanders thought wise. They told us that if he ever returned he would not make it off the ferry onto the dock. This is a great book and should be read and appreciated by all.

I mean it,this is brilliant stuff ! Mr. Reginald has done his homework and proves himself a master of all things medieval with this first tale set in Nova Europa. His grasp of history playing itself out in a dark and bloody alternate Middle Ages and his subtle introduction of fantasy elements to the mix, earmark this as a series to follow closely in the months and years ahead. Im hoping that we are treated to maps in future volumes since the various tales are set in different areas of Nova Europa and at different times in history.Speaking with Ariadne Press,the second novel,The Exiled Prince will be arriving soon in Amazon warehouses and the third novel Questiones is due to be released in September.
May this author live to be a hundred !

It was with a degree of trepidation that I set out to read THE DARK-HAIRED MAN. 600 pages! I'm a strong admirer of Robert Reginald's short stories (see my Amazon review) but not a big fantasy fan. And the first few chapters were indeed not so easy. All those funny half-familiar names, for instance. Granted, there is a useful glossary at the back of the book for quick reference, and in any case that half-familiarity is the whole key to Reginald's Nova Europa. Nova Europa is how the world might have developed if the Roman emperor Julian, known to us as "Julian the Apostate", had not been killed in the year 363 in battle with the Persians (or perhaps at the hand of a Christian enemy? According to one tradition, this was the martyr St. Mercurius, who returned briefly from the dead to finish off the wicked pagan emperor). In this alternative vision of history Julian survived, to become "Julian the Great", and the following centuries worked out rather differently. The trick is not original, but Reginald carries it off most elegantly. Once the reader has grasped what the situation is, the novel zooms along in great style. I actually found it difficult to put down, and I read it through to the end in two late evening reading sessions each of which followed a long working day. THE DARK-HAIRED MAN is one of the most exuberant books that I've ever read. There is a wide-range of distinctively-drawn characters, the writing is atmospheric, the "fantasy elements" (the things I normally like least in fiction) are plausible within their frame of reference, and the main source of evil in the story is immediate, psychologically convincing and chillingly spiteful (which is more than can be said for Tolkien's Sauron, for example). So: Hats off to Mr. Reginald for a really fine piece of work! The second novel in the series, THE EXILED PRINCE, has already appeared, and there are apparently further novels on their way. If they can match the quality of this one, we shall be witnessing the creation of a major literary phenomenon.

P.S. The novel is very funny too.

And, here is a book truly for the readers of ... well... of ... "this kind of book". And, just what "kind" of book is it? Well, it's a book on the massive historical scale that includes pretty much all of the genres: mystery, suspense, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, murder, humor ... It's chockablock with a distorted Medieval Europe, and the myriad characters existing therein, that/who could well be assumed to exist in some other dimension. Kings and Queens and Dukes and Witches and Warlocks and Wizards, and Demons, even the Devil, come into play, in this fictionalized account of somewhere, sometime, Middle-Ages' landscapes whereupon power struggles bring into play, on an enormously large stage, all of the delicious vices and virtues, all of the acts of bravery and vengeance, all of the greediness for power and machinations of powerful people, good and bad who die and are born ... of nations that rise and fall ... of metamorphoses, physical and mental, that occur. Magic rings and torques and mirrors come into play. Magic, black and white, along with many momentous magical moments, arise on each and every page, as the brilliance of author Robert Reginald weaves this literary tapestry that, while it may prove too complex for some readers to fathom, on all its myriad literary (and those not in-on-the-inside-jokes) levels, does reward, one and all, in the end, with a finely-wrought solution to one man's search for his identify in a world suddenly gone mad because of vengeance and witchcraft. [Speaking of tapestries, by the way, a series of them play an important part in the latter pages of the volume]. THE DARK-HAIRED MAN is a must read for anyone "into" this kind of book.

In "The Dark-Haired Man, or A Hieromonk's Tale" Rob Reginald has created an intriguing blend of fantasy, history, romance, and mystery. Fascinating characters, from the tragic to the humorous populate in medieval world of Nova Europa. I especially like the strong female characters who use their brains, feminine wiles, magic, and their political connections to change their world. These women operate within the constraints of their roles as queens, princesses, and noblewomen but exhibit every bit as much power as men, without dueling with swords. Several forms of magic work in Nova Europa, sometimes in opposition to each other. Mysteries, from the overarching questions of Afanasy's parentage and the evil one's identity, to the small questions about magical dolls, increase the suspense. Amusing situations, witty dialogue, and sarcastic comments keep the reader laughing just enough to offset the sorrow over the horrific battle scenes and the death's of major characters. Although quite different from most fantasy worlds, Nova Europa is a delightful place to visit and I look forward to Rob Reginald's future fantasy novels.

Heading to Germany for the Football (Soccer) World Cup in June 2006? Take a detour to Berlin and be amazed by the vibrancy and architecture of this new/old city. Reading Ruth Baja Williams' "Detour Berlin" is an excellent introduction to your visit, giving the city a unique flavour from the perspective of a 20-year-long visitor. The former East Berlin is currently being transformed with renovated apartment buildings, stunning new high rises, and everywhere there are trees and parks to soften the built environment. As you wander around Alexanderplatz recall Ruth's experiences there, imagine the life she describes of her friends residing on the `other' side of the Berlin Wall. Visit cosmopolitan department stores, putting yourself in the position of a long suffering 1960 -70s East Berliner attempting to purchase scarce, very basic products. Picture yourself living in West Berlin, separated from family and friends by a forbidding wall. Allow Ruth, through her warm, yet incisive observations, to take you on a journey that will make your own visit so much more meaningful and appreciative of a lifestyle often taken for granted. Ruth's prose is vividly accessible as she generously shares the daily lives of her family and friends in a way that brings a European city into the realm of understanding of a non-European. Do detour!

Ruth Baja Williams memoirs of post-wall pre-unification Berlin are hard to put down. Buy this book and you're guaranteed to be caught up in her vivid storytelling abilities and compelling gifts for observation. In a way, her book also serves as a mini-biography of her husband Charles Williams, one of America's most gifted and creative singers and teachers (he created the role of Sporting Life at the Metropolitan Opera's premier performances of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 1985).

What a read! Ruth took me to Berlin, placed me in her family, and brought me a rich, honest encounter with a place I knew little about. Thank you Ruth (and Charles) for letting me share your wonderful detour to Berlin.

Ruth has witnessed a period of our modern history which is too little known and understood by much of the supposedly educated Western world - and written so well and thoughtfully about her experiences. We share her disappointments, admire her achievements with the German language, freeze with her, are inspired by the stoicism and even good humour of individuals who have suffered so much in war, feel the warmth of her German friends, can imagine the hassle and frustration of crossing into East Berlin and appreciate the fascination Ruth and Charles had with the events, culture, history, politics and customs of Berlin.

This 20 year detour by an interracial American couple in Cold War Berlin is an interesting, compulsive read which also permits valuable insights into personal interactions within the culturally diverse international community.

A compelling account of a 20th-century love story set in Cold War Berlin. Ruth Baja, a girl from an upper class Philippine background, marries Charles Williams, a black American singer, against her family's wishes. They find themselves in Berlin--temporarily they think--soon after the Wall divides the city. They stay and raise a family while Charles pursues a European career. This is a voyage of political, cultural and personal discovery, told with wit, poignance and grace. You'll fall in love with Ruth and Charles, and with Berlin too.

Edit of 17 Apr 08 to add links.

This book should be read as an adjunct to the author's other major book along these lines on power to the powerless.

The most gripping and troubling conclusion that I drew from this book is that the United States of America is today much closer to where Czechoslovakia was in 1968 than anyone other than the Chomsky's and Vidal's might be willing to admit. We have both a federal government and a national corporate economy that thrives on elitist secrecy and blatant lies--even our non-profit sector is corrupt, from the Red Cross to United Way to many others. The people, the citizen-voters, truly have lost all power, as well as access to the information that might give them back the power, and this is indeed a black, absurdist-realist situation.

On a more positive note, the author offers up, in the course of a long series of interviews, a number of ideas that are relevant to America today, as well as to any other emerging or re-emergent democracies in the making.

1) Model of behavior. When arguing with the center of power, do not get side-tracked with ideological debates over right or wrong. Focus on very specific concrete things (e.g. term limits, campaign finance reform, neighborhood economics) and stick to your guns.

2) Popular coalitions. Non-violent non-partisan popular coalitions are the core means of taking back the power. They represent a means for bring together groups of people from widely divergent backgrounds, with genuine social tolerance.

3) Informal networks. Even under conditions of repression and censorship, informal networks of dissidents and quasi-dissidents can be effective in sharing information through samizdat publications. [With the Internet, these possibilities explode, although caution must be taken on the fringes since the Internet is easily monitored and the more radical leaders could be declared seditionist "combatants" ineligible for their rights as citizens...speaking of the Soviet Union, of course, not America.]

4) Man versus Machine. Havel reaches his own conclusions founded in Czech literature and his own experience, with respect to the urgency of restoring the kinship and human connections that used to drive politics, economics, and other aspects of organized living. He is at one with Lionel Tiger among many others, with respect to the terribly consequences of the industrial era in terms of de-humanizing decision-making and allowing remote elites to treat individual workers as dispensable cogs in the machine, whose lives matter not a whit.

5) Neighborhoods, Politics "From Below". He joins the authors of the Cultural Creatives (Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson) and of IMAGINE: What America Could be in the 21st Century (Marianne Williamson) in emphasizing the vital role that neighborhoods must play in any democracy. From political self-governance to sustainable economics to low-cost healthy agriculture to cultural cohesion, neighborhoods are the sin qua non of democracy--without active neighborhoods, one can go so far as to say, national democracy is a sham, a false theater, fully equivalent to the centralized, repressive, inefficient totalitarian control states of earlier eras.

6) Small Numbers Can Make a Difference. I was struck by how few were the original dissidents and organizers--in some cases, 20-30 in number, in others 70-80. Earlier studies have suggested that Hitler took power over millions with just 25,000 people. One can only hope that the anti-thesis is true, and that the 50 million cultural creatives can take back the power by getting serious about organizing across neighborhoods and into a national network.

7) Art and theater matter. Even under conditions of severe censorship and control, art and theater can be the manifestation of uncensored life, "life that spits on all ideology and all that lofty word of babble; a life that intrinsically resist(s) all forms of violence, all interpretations, all directives....here stood truth..."

8) Absurdity is a warning. Nihilistic and absurd theater or other works of art are a caution. They "do not offer us consolation or hope (but) merely remind( ) us of how we are living: without hope.

9) Truth can be misappropriated. The author experienced the misappropriation of his words and was both hurt and enlightened, ultimately creating a play about truth, the circumstances in which it is said, and the whom, why, and how of it.

10) Great men doubt themselves. Most touching are the author's many retrospective and current references to his insecurities, to his doubting himself even as he made history and became President of Czechoslovakia.

11) Writers live to tell the truth. This is certainly not true of most American writers who write for money, but it reflects the ideal and merits thought.

12) Change the atmosphere. If you can do nothing else, strive for a moral mobilization and a change in the atmosphere of governance, at any level. We cannot even begin to conceive the magnitude of the positive changes that can occur overnight if the people begin to speak truth among themselves. Work toward a process "in which people's civic backbones (begin) to straighten again."

13) Role of the intellectual. While I the reviewer would churlishly doubt that America has many intellectuals right now, the author's concluding words on the role of the intellectual strike me as very important: "...the intellectual should constantly disturb, should bear witness to the misery of the world, should be provocative by being independent, should rebel against all hidden and open pressure and manipulations, should be the chief doubter of systems, of power and its incantations, should be a witness to their mendacity."

Any person concerned about the corruption and misdirection of their government and their corporate as well as non-profit entities, will be provoked and inspired by this book. It speaks to the future of human life as it might be, were we willing to stand up straight and be counted at citizen-voters, active at every level beginning with our own neighborhoods.

Living in Truth: 22 Essays Published on the Occasion of the Award of the Erasmus Prize to Vaclav Havel
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

We Americans tend to forget that Vaclav Havel was an Artist, poet, writer and existentialist thinker long before we seized upon him as our own private "anti-communist hero extraordinaire." And as with most other things, we in the West tended to "fixate" on Havel as just the one-man anti-Communist sideshow: the singleton hero of the Prague Spring. That is to say, we saw in him only what we wanted to see -- only what was comfortable for our myopic vision and only what tended to calm our democratic sensibilities. For had we looked and drank just a bit deeper, there was a lot more of this self-made "artist turned political activist," to see than just our knee-jerk recreation of him through our own eyes as our own larger-than-life anti-Communist hero.

This book offers another vision of him that looks deeper into his very troubled, but nevertheless very important soul. Having had this book on my bookshelf, left unread for almost 20 years, this oversight alone makes me as guilty of seeing only the "shadow Havel as anti-Communist caricature," as the rest.

In this very thoughtful series of autobiographical interviews, the "deeper Vaclav Havel," comes through loudly and clearly. And here I mean of course the one just beyond the popular anti-Communist Western created veneer. Havel has always used his very subtle, supple and artistic mind to become more than just an Anti-Communist firebrand. In the grand tradition of other Europeans, and more than anything else, he is an existentialist humanist thinker, with much practical advice for democrats. However his primary concerns have never been just with the fetishized political games that superpowers play. Whether they be the brutal class-based politics of Communism which, before it committed suicide, had morphed into a softer form of equally fetishized version of socialism; or about the equally brutal racist-based capitalist consumer-driven democracies, which as they begin to see their own self-inflicted deaths just over the horizon, have also morphed into a "kinder and gentler" form of American racism, or what amounts to about the same, Mandela's softer version of South African Apartheid: Either way, none of these has been Havel's primary concern.

In this book we see Havel's real concerns spread out on the table, as he tells us how his keen sensibilities evolved until he learned to reject his own bourgeois class-based Communist upbringing. He learned to reject it because as he puts it "it gave me unearned privileges and alienated me from myself and from the rest of society in ways that could not be undone until I became aware enough to develop a refined sense of fairness, and until I could develop a "social emotion" that was antagonistic towards the class privileges I had inherited." Havel's "social emotion" was one that was also antagonistic towards unjust social barriers, and towards any pre-determined status awarded at birth, or based on the "false consciousness" of race superiority or any other forms of unearned status whose existence is designed specifically to humiliate, dominate and dehumanize others.

Although Vaclav rebellion against his parent's wealth is classic and familiar to us in the U.S., he did not blame them -- as he saw them as decent people merely caught up in and locked into the social customs and way of life of their time, perhaps in the same way that we Americans do when we use the same lament to excuse our own parent's evils of Jim Crow and slavery. Like his American counterparts, Havel too, even as a member of the bourgeois, preferred a sensibility that sided with the oppressed rather than with the ruling class of which, through inheritance, he was a member in "good standing."

However, unlike the typical American or South African racist, who would never grant moral superiority to those they oppress, even though classism was his natural inheritance, Havel opposed his social station at an almost instinctual level because with all of its undeserved advantages it was seen by him as morally inferior to those it oppressed. He also opposed it because of its inherited privileges, the sponging off of the powerless, due to its social injustices and the immoral barriers that tended to degrade man and condemned those it oppressed to the status of sub-humans. Havel said that by the time of the 1968 uprisings, he had become what he called "an emotional" and a "moral socialist." But even this was just a half way house on his journey to greater personal awareness and enlightenment.

As his social consciousness evolved he began to see the crisis of the world as deeper than just particular ways of organizing the economies, their respective peculiar social arrangements, or the politics of a particular system. What he saw long before it became obvious to the rest of us, is that both the East and West are suffering from the same dilemma: a crisis of alienation, a malaise in which man is isolated from himself; a conflict between an impersonal, anonymous, irresponsible, corrupt and uncontrollable juggernaut of power (the power of mega-corporations, mega-technology, and mega-dollars in politics and mega-churchs), and the elemental and original interests of man as a concrete individual.

In this sense, Havel sees this conflict in the same terms that Ernest Becker saw them: as a nostalgic loss of metaphysical certainties, a lack of a capacity to experience the transcendental, of any super-personal moral authority, or any kind of higher moral horizon. As he puts it: "As soon as man begins to consider himself the source of the highest meaning in the world he begins to lose his human dimension, and control of his humanity. We are going through a great departure from God, which has no parallel in history: we have become the first atheistic civilization."

But again, as in the case with Becker, we must resist the temptation to force these comments about God and the need for a return to spiritualism, into our own facile, lifeless and morally compressed Procrustean Beds. His reference to God and an "extramundane authority" is similar to that of Professor Cornel West's version of his own self-styled version of "Chekovian Christianity:" They both represent "Existentialist revolutions" more than they represent traditional rearrangements of existing religious norms of morality. Anyway you cut it, both West and Havel's versions of "God" seek to drive the moneychangers from the Temple.

Havel, Becker and West all put at the foot of our collective dilemma, man's arrogant anthropomorphism, in which he attempts to know and control everything. As we go about, bouncing between obscene consumption on the one hand and novel but obscene repression on the other, these great men all agree that we need to find a deeper sense of responsibility to the world and to something higher than ourselves. We need a new moral order based on returning man to his genuine human dimension, which can eventually lead to new social structures where personal humanity may again begins to rule supreme.

Far be it for me to suggest that these great men and their shared vision may have missed an important point: that man's humanity is not what it used to be. It has changed and been transformed in fundamental, perhaps even in irretrievable, ways. We cannot "walk the cat back" to an earlier more pristine moral time. Moral ground zero has changed, perhaps forever. Like everything else, our humanity too has been corrupted. We can't un-ring that bell; there is no way to back.

Sadly, the new humanity that we have created is what it is, period. There is lots of practical advice for democrats here, but Havel's larger message is, in my view, much more important.

Ten Stars

Other reviews are right on the money in terms of this being a very good book and of course it covers many key elements of the events and times during the changes in Czechoslovakia. However the are several key messages, and lessons for anyone interested in managing, motivating and leading people; particularly through difficult or uncharted changes. There are also some good reflections on the role, character and nature of theater and other individual and group activities in the arts.

This is a fine book about an amazing man. I was truly inspired by Vaclav Havel after reading this book. This book is an "easy read" even though it is largely about weighty matters. It is an interesting and enlightening book.

Whenever I need a moral boost I go back and reread Vaclav Havel's
"Disturbing the Peace". This book is a series of essays by the
dissident Vaclav Havel that were smuggled out of communist
Czechoslovakia and translated by a Havel friend in the West. Vaclav
Havel was a playwright who became a Czech dissident who became leader
of the Velvet revolution (which ousted the communists) and who finally
became president of the republic.

Vaclav Havel was the foremost
dissident under the communist regime. He openly challenged the ruling
government with such essays as "Power to the Powerless" and
"The Soul of Main under Communism". (Actually I forgot the name
of the latter essay. I think "The Soul of Man under Communism"
is an essay written by Oscar Wilde. But Havel did address this theme
in "Disturbing the Peace" and in essays he forwarded to the
communist rulers.)

One of the most exciting parts of the book is
where Havel describes the dissident communitie's efforts to publish a
Havel essay advocating that the Czech government adhere to the terms
of the Charter 77 human rights accord to which they were a signatory.
The story is spine tingling thriller complete with car chases and
obscure drop points. It reads like a John le Carre novel except it is
real.

After you read "Disturbing to Peace" I also recommend
"The Magic Lanten" by Timothy Garton Ash. This is a first hand
account of the fall of the communism as the democratic revolution
rolled across Czechoslovakia, East German, Hungary, and Romania.
Garton Ash was privy to the inner circle of people who plotted and
executed these bloodless coups. (Bloodless everywhere except, of
course, in Romania.)

Jacques Sandulescu

I really enjoyed reading this book. I read it in one evening. It's a real page turner! It's a great book for the teenager, as the hero, Jacques Sandulescu is just 16 when he is captured by Soviet troops and sent to work as a slave laborer in a mine camp. Donbas is his true story how he survived and escaped. The sequel Hunger's Rogues is currently out of print but I found a copy through Amazon.

Amazing story. I'm glad it wasn't lost and is being republished. I bought two copies. This would be a great story for teenagers to read about endurance and survival (for all ages, but the story is easy to read and the guy is a teenager when he was captured by the Russians and sent to the slave camp). It is very remarkable story if even mostly true and now one of my favorite books.

When I met Jacques Sandulescu, I was a pasty college kid whose idea of exertion involved a highlighter and a textbook. Jacques was twice my age, a giant, rock hard, with hands that swallowed pens whole. Romania was deep in his past, as was his career as a professional boxer; in l968, when we met, he was a Greenwich Village bar owner.

Like Big Daddy Lipscomb --- the legendary giant of a football player who used to help opponents up "so the children won't think Big Daddy's mean" --- Jacques was a calming force in every room he entered. You couldn't imagine trouble erupting with him around; he was that big and strong. And, at the same time, peaceful --- he had the kind of calm only people who have passed through fire seem to know.

It wasn't until I read his book that I understood the horror Jacques survived.

"I was arrested in Brasov on my way to school," his book begins. And right there your stomach sinks. Because you know what's coming: a terrible story, told in unadorned prose.

Well, brace yourself, you're about to be devastated.

As "Donbas" opens, Jacques is 16 years old, 6 feet 2 inches tall, 180 pounds. He's the youngest person in the box car filled with Romanians that the Russians are shipping east in January of 1945. But his youth vanishes fast when he watches guards execute some would-be escapees. On one hand, he envies their death: "no more cold, misery, hunger." On the other, he wants to live. Which means he'll have to escape.

This is a book about noticing everything, paying sharp attention, looking for an opening. His first conclusion: Don't try to escape in winter, don't think you can get out of Russia without knowing Russian.

But after a few days of working in the mines of Donbas (now considered part of the Ukraine), his thoughts turn from escape to survival. The work is wet and cold. A cave-in could come at any time. Exhaustion, exposure, hunger --- death comes in many forms here.

I have never read an account of work in a coal mine that made me so claustrophobic. I found myself reading faster, as if getting to the end of a particularly horrible shift would provide some relief. But it didn't --- above ground, there were sadistic guards and icy winds. "Many prisoners died," Jacques reports matter-of-factly. "Over half the camp. Four hundred and fifty weak and sick weren't suffering any more."

Jacques is comparatively well off. He is strong and uncomplaining, a good worker. He gets privileges --- when he goes to nearby homes for dinner, it's a delight to read as he eats and eats and eats. But he's never fooled; there's always a power-mad guard around the corner. And one does beat him so badly he almost dies. Which makes it all the more satisfying when, with the permission of a senior officer, Jacques stomps that sadist mercilessly. "It was a good feeling while it lasted," he says. I think even a pacifist would agree.

After two and a half years, his luck runs out --- Jacques is trapped in a cave-in and rescued only by a friend's heroic efforts. He fears his legs will be amputated. He must escape. His legs are running with pus, he is a mass of sores, but he slips onto a train, hides in an open coal car and begins the slow, freezing ride to the West.

Books like this have a built-in handicap --- we know the author survived. Only the best of the breed make us forget that there's a happy ending. And this is the best; reading these pages, you will feel cold and hungry, raging with fever, wet and dispirited. But mostly, you will feel Jacques Sandulescu's spirit, his unyielding insistence on life, life in free air, life at all costs. And, after you put his book down, you will, literally, take a deep breath

I first read donbus in my sophmore year in high school. It was a 1st edition copy quite tattered and worn. I figured it looked easy enough to read to get my credit for the book report that would follow. In the week that followed, I became attached to the book. Every free moment was spent reading it. His story facinated me. I couldn't put it down. Needless to say, the book never made it back to the school library. I re-read it every year and enjoy it more and more. I contacted the author a few years ago and told him of my enjoyment of his work and how i had permanently borrowed the book. To my surprise, i recieved an autographed copy from him i treasure! This book is incredible. Read it and enjoy the story of one mans will to survive. You wont regret it!

I had first heard about Jacques Sandulescu through my father, after he loaned me the book, "The Carpathian Caper", a novel by Sandulescu and Anne Gottleib. It was a Topkapi-esque adventure, about a man's return to his homeland behind the Iron Curtain after being kidnapped by Russian soldiers as a youth and shipped off to a Soviet slave labor camp, escaping after a mine cave-in crushed his legs, escaping to freedom, working his way West from black marketeer in the Middle East and Europe, to prize fighter in the midwest to nightclub owner in New York. It deals with his friend's plans to embarass the Russian Government by the very high profile heist of priceless religious icons right from under their noses.

The lead character, Jack, was one of those impossible men, like Indiana Jones, Dirk Pitt, Jack Ryan or James Bond. Who knew that he was for real?

Donbas is his story, the true tale of a 16 year old boy's decent into the hell of the mines in the Donbas region of the USSR. His torture, his survival, his escape and his life since then is the stuff great movies are made of. So why is Hollywood sitting on their hands on this one?

Read the adventure, then rent movies like "Moscow On The Hudson", "The Owl And The Pussycat" and "Trading Places". Watch for a big, burly man with a thick Russian accent and say hello to Jacques.

The other 5-star reviews have it right, this is one terrific story that is difficult to put down once begun. However, this book provides more than an engaging account of a lost battle and the subsequent periods of escape and captivity by the author. The author delves deeply into the psychology of the captor/captive relationship - both in general and the specific dynamics of this war.

What I found fascinating is the maniacal desire of the communist Chinese to obtain some measure of legitimacy for their actions, both political and militarily, in signed statements, confessions from their captors, and in the comical re-education classes.

It becomes apparent that for these captors and captives at the Pyongyang Political Prison, this period was a test of the legitimacy of their way of life - philosophically, politically, and morally. And while these men lost the military battle for the hills near the Imjun River early in the war, they held the intellectual and moral high ground until the day they returned home. This was their victory.

This account of the fight put up against overwhelming odds by the "Glorious Gloucesters" at the battle of the Imjin River in April 1951, and the subsequent imprisonment as POWs of most of the survivors, deserves to go down as a classic tale of warfare and heroism.

The author, Captain (later General Sir) Anthony Farrar Hockley, who was adjutant (e.g. battalion chief of staff) of the first battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment, originally wrote the book in the mid fifties, shortly after his return from captivity.

During a major Chinese and North Korean offensive during the Korean war, the 1st battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment held their position on the Imjin river against many times their numbers for three days. There were heavy casualties on both sides - shortly after his capture the author counted more than two hundred Chinese bodies on one slope of one hill after one morning's fighting.

After supplies and a relief column failed to get through, the battalion was forced to retreat and most of the survivors were captured while trying to get back to Allied lines. The first seventy pages of the book describe the battle: the remaining 216 describe the author's experiences in captivity, including his attepts at escape.

I can't improve on the description of this book in the foreword to the 1955 version which was written by Major General Brodie.

"Captain Farrar-Hockley, then Adjutant of the Glosters, who himself was outstanding in the battle and afterwards, has written the most graphic account of a battle and of escaptes from captivity I have ever read.

This is a book which ought to be read by every soldier and prospective soldier.

Here he may learn what is meant by real discpline and inspiring leadership."

I must have read this book at least seven times, and also acknowledge the author as a great military historian (22? books), as well as being a knight of the realm. He was a gutsy Adjutant of the Gloucestershire Regiment at the Battle of the Imjin River in the Korean war. He pens a rivetting story about his exploits in escape from the North Koreans and the Chinese. I believe that he remains the most escaped prisoner of war in history.

He was decorated for his gallantry in Korea, and retired a Field Marshall, (five star general). I believe as the Allied Supreme Commander of NATO?

His story is an inspiration to all persons military, and to many who may have never even spoken to one. He suffers his captors and their tortures to become an extraordinary personality.

I'm about to read it for the 8th time!

Do yourself a favour, touch through these pages a hero from the "forgotten" war.

An account of the stand of the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment, at the Eastern crossing of the Imjin River during the Korean War 1950-1953, by the Adjutant of the Battalion at the time. It continues with an account of the captivity experienced by the author: of his journeys up and down North Korea, now an escapee, now recaptured; of interrogations in Pyongyang Political Prison, of life with the Chinese both in and outside prison Camps; and of the men with whom he shared those experiences.

General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley shares his personal experiences from the Korean War in "The Edge of the Sword". The result is a powerful book recounting battlefield heroism and the highest standards of conduct during his 30 months of captivity.

This incredible book begins with then Captain Farrar-Hockley, the Battalion Adjutant, in position on the hills overlooking the Imjin River in April 1951. After four human waves of Chinese soldiers attempting to overrun their positions, the British broke contact and attempted to rejoin the rapidly retreating allied forces. After days of brutal combat, they were surrounded and surrendered to Chinese forces.

General Farrar-Hockley details each of his six escapes from either the Chinese and North Korean forces. Along with these gripping tales, he also shares the emotional stress caused by some of the various torture methods, including the particularly cruel water-boarding.

In 1955, President Eisenhower created the Code of the U.S. Fighting Force to serve as an ethical guide for US combatants who fall into enemy hands, as a result of actions of US prisoners held captive during the Korean War. The current code contains seven articles providing a moral compass in the areas of leadership, resistance, escape, and faith in your country. In this book, General Farrar-Hockley's tale exemplifies each of the key articles of the US Code of Conduct taught to all US service-members.

This book is a powerful, inspirational story that belongs in the library of every modern day warrior.
===============
After reading additional books, I have discovered that Anthony Farrar-Hockley is the master of the understatement. The "Glosters" were the premier British unit in the Korean War. The Battle of Imjin river is known as the "Epic Stand of the Glosters" in England. There is no better way to read about the battle, except to hear it from a man who lived through it. J. Rudy, 9/7/2008

excellent book, all that you need to know about many things that have been hidden to us by many centuries by religion and things that shoundn't been hidden because they belong to humanity, to history, to everybody;it make you wonder how we been used and been confused century after century.

Simply excellent! tanys alfonso, west palm beach,florida.

Now this is a really heavy book, there is so much information its amazing! Lei esta version en el original ingles y luego en castellano. Poniendo religion a un lado este libro es espectacular, tiene tanta informacion que tienes que tomarte la lectura con tiempo y calma. Las posibilidades son increibles, y muy logicas si piensas abiertamente y dejando dogmas de lado. Este libro es definitivamente de esos que guardas y relees mil veces.

iT IS A VERY GOOD BOOK IF ARE YOU LOOKING FOR SOMETHING SIMILAR AS A DA VINCI CODE. PLEASE READ IT AND YOU WILL SEE HOW ENGROSS YOU WILL BE.
INGRID

Excelente en forma y fondo. Està escrito para que el lector no quiera dejar de leerlo de principio de fin. Historicamente espectacular, un golpe al cristianismo donde mas le duele, en la verdad. Ya era hora de romper los mitos y desenmascarar a la iglesia y toda su farsa de los ùltimos 2000 años. Afortunadamente ya no quemam brujas porque de lo contrario los 3 historiadores que hicieron el libro estarìan en la hoguera junto a los millones de inocentes que el cristianismo ha matado durante su historia

Esta es la verdadera fuente de la cual Brown tomo su idea para "El codigo da Vinci". Aqui la historia y las especulaciones en torno al tema de la descendencia de Cristo provienen de fuentes historicas. La informacion, mas "heavy" que esa aguada que aparece en el libro de Brown, requiere de un lector con cerebro, dispuesto a detenerse de vez en cunando a pensar en lo que le estan diciendo. Apasionante.

This is an awesome book. Buy it and enjoy it.
Libro cojonudo. Disfrutarás como un chaval.

Este es por lejos una de los mejores libros que he leido. El autor encontro una manera muy agradable de contar una historia de la que la mayoria de la gente no quiere saber, concuerdo con otros comentarios, este no es un libro de texto, sin embargo como historia aporta mas que muchos libros de texto (al menos a nosotros los no filosofos de profesion) y de una manera muy interesante. Este es un gran libro que le deja como herencia al lector el reto de ejercitar la imaginacion y recuperar su capacidad de asombrarse con las cosas mas cotidianas.

Este libro llego a mis manos por casualidad en la biblioteca de Nueva Acropolis. Concuerdo con uno de las opiniones vertidas en esta página: No es un libro de introducción a la filosofía, si estás buscando filosofía no compres este libro. Este libro es un cuento en el que el autor va dejando a medida que se desarrollan los mágicos acontecimientos de manera inteligente una breve reseña de las corrientes filosóficas, sus representantes y sus ideas. Mi formación en este campo era NULA (ese curso no lo lleve en el colegio)...después de leer este libro, me intereso la filosofía y pude comprender de que se trata. Si te gustan los cuentos ágiles, la lectura amena, quizas un poquito de suspenso, debes adquirir este libro. Disfrutarás de su lectura y adicionalmente cuando termines de leerlo, sabrás un poquito desde Socrates hasta Popper, pasando por Nietsche, Lock, Santo Tomas de Aquino, Espinoza...Me despido de Uds. me voy a leerlo de nuevo.

Este es un libro bastante entretenido sobre la Historia de la Filosof?a, pero no debes catalogar este libro como un texto in extenso del tema, porque lo mas seguro es que te vas a defraudar. Cierto que nos habla de las principales corrientes filosof?as, pero no debemos pretender que abarque todo el contenido de todas o de alguna de ellas, critica que imagino es con la que mas se se?ala este libro. Como una introducci?n a un curso de Historia de la Filosof?a no es mejor ni peor que los otros cursos de introducci?n, y como quiera que sea, pasa a contar exactamente la misma historia que los dem?s libros. ?qu? hace entonces que este libro sea para mi especial? Es la forma en que Gaarder lo hace: convierte la introducci?n a la historia de la filosof?a en una novela que llega a desbordar todos los limites de imaginaci?n entre un padre y su hija.

Si nunca te has interesado en la Filosof?a, te aseguro que este libro clavara esta palabra en tu mente. Esto, sobretodo, si eres de aquellos que temen los libros textuales y formuleros. Pero si has incursionado en alguna corriente filos?fica con alguna profundidad, no mires este libro deseando analizar lo que seguramente ya sabes de la corriente que deseas, porque es seguro que sabes mas que lo que aqu? se presenta. Pero, como quiera que sea, como sucede con cualquier libro, siempre tendr?s algo que aprender de el.

Me han regalado el libro por mi 15°cumpleaños. Realmente es interesante ver como se desarrolla la trama de tal manera que los personajes principales van evolucionando. Por una parte Sofía la niña que corría el riesgo de convertirse lo que se llamaría un "apatico humano" logro superarlo mediante las enseñanzas de un completo extraño. No es un libro sobre las opiniones del autor acerca de preguntas filosóficas. Al contrario si eres el tipo de persona que te agrada pensar en ellas este libro te ayudará desde el princio al final a razonarlas un poco más por tu propia cuenta y saber opiniones de antiguos filosofos que tal vez coinciden con las tuyas.