In eleven original, surprising and deliciously dark stories, Victoria Redel moves effortlessly between men's and women's perspectives in stories that explore marriage, divorce and parenthood. A newly divorced mother stumbles her way back into single life. A young man and his girlfriend clean out his dead mother's overstuffed home. A woman struggles to hide her affair from a doting husband and inquisitive daughter. A man descends into a drug-fueled dream as he imagines losing his pregnant wife to a historical, nineteenth century figure. Redel indelibly captures the ways we love, the ways we yearn and the ways we sabotage each. Throughout the collection, children struggle to make sense of the adult world's uncertainties as husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, find themselves pressed up against their own limits, "the exaltations and treasons of one's own mothy heart." Redel has again done what Grace Paley said of Redel's first collection, "Only a poet could have written this prose. Only a storyteller could keep a reader turning these pages so greedily."

An immigrant's journey is never fully completed, even a Jewish immigrant's move to Israel. There is no defining finish line when an adult, who moves to a foreign land, victoriously throws up his arms and says with complete satisfaction, "I have completely arrived, I am completely one - emotionally, mentally, culturally - with my new land."The immigrant may have native friends, native children, a responsible job, full command of the language and economic security, yet there will always be something that makes him feel like an outsider: an accent, an insecurity, a preference for reading in his mother-tongue, a physical appearance, a way of dress, counting in his native language, associating with people from his former country, an inexplicable longing for a certain sport, food, scent or vista. Since the scenery of one's soul is made up of the climate, jokes, mannerisms, tastes, smells, sounds, cultural references and holidaysthat one grows up with, there is an intense feeling of dislocation whenthis landscape is replaced by another. The emotions that accompanythese stages are manifold: displacement, fear, insecurity, longing, joy, and acceptance.This book, made up of columns that have appeared in The JerusalemPost over the last 25 years, records an American immigrant's experience to Israel through each of the stages. It does so by tracing the four seasons, with each season representing not only a time of year, but also a stage of life or mental mood.But this book is more than just an immigrant's tale. It also sheds a different light on Israel, and portrays it as a land not only of endless strife and conflict, but rather as a real land populated by real people, who live and love, laugh and cry, give birth and raise children, emigrate from and immigrate to.Indeed, despite the much discussed, documented and real problemsthat Israel faces, the country still has something extraordinary that stirs people to move there and voluntarily become immigrants, a designation -- and a feeling -- that lasts forever. This book looks at what that "something" is in a human and humorous way. From never quite catching on to that metric/Celsius thing; to managing with a name unpronounceable in Hebrew; to struggling with whether a soldier/son needs to do household chores on furloughs from the army, the columns in French Fries in Pita will make those who have taken a similar journey nod knowingly at truths they recognize, and give those who have not yet undertaken this type of trek a better understanding of what is really involved.

Faithwalking In Our Time is a candid autobiographical account of my battle with human injustice. My book begins with an old friend, now known as Deacon Jim, meeting me in an unlikely location--Grafton Correctional--during the summer of l993. From there I provide my account of the events that brought me unjustly into prison. I recount the difficulties with an adopted son, including his eventual accusation of sexual abuse. I attempt to take the reader through the maze of social work froth with racial prejudice, and mental stereotyping. Also included is a background of my life leading up to the criminal charges, along with my courtship and marriage to Diane and the birth of our children. Faithwalking In Our Time seeks to raise awareness of the injustices I encountered which permeate both the social justice system and religious minded individuals. Utilization of detailed descriptions and characterizations enhance the presentation of those themes. The primary theme is, through this desert walk full of horrible experiences and overwhelming odds, I gradually discovered I was traveling this road with God at my side.

A land once protected by all sorts of wonderful trees is reduced over time by war and environmental neglect to desert, until new inhabitants plant trees and slowly make Israel bloom again.

Excerpt from The Gilead Guards: A Story of War-Times in a New England Town Here was nothing in the rural town of Gil ead on that lovely June Sabbath in 1862 to suggest warfare of any kind. Looking around you might have seen wide corn fields, hill pastures covered with verdure to their very tops, sleepy cows lying beside shaded brooks, lazily chewing their cuds, and long dusty roads lead ing' past quiet farm-houses. Farther away, out lined clearly against the quiet sky, were long spurs of the Green Mountain range, encircling the town and completely shutting it in from the outside world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

"Vitali Vitaliev is the Ukranian-born author, poet and journalist whose life has been spent exploring the curious, the unusual and the plain dotty manifestations of human life around the world." "In this honest memoir, Vitaliev describes how on many occasions in his life, words have provided him with the means of survival: the words of great writers from Mikhail Bulgakov to George Orwell; the words of writer friends such as Peter Ustinov and Joseph Heller; the words of his mother, of his children. He references his own writing too, with memories of creative assignments all over the globe, recalling the voices of people he as met and the impressions they made on him." --Book Jacket.

Excerpt from The Strangers' Wedding, or the Comedy of a Romantic He sighed. It would have been much nicer not to have had a conscience, or a sense of duty. Or an impulse of pity. Or rot of that sort. And just to have been a blood or something simple. Still, there it was. Before he could go any further into his meditation. A hand had smacked him upon the shoulder. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Caliban Was ever such a creature known in the Zoo at Regent's Park Tarland, the vulpine dam of Romulus and Remus suckled you not! But let us draw a decent veil. Come, Selby. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A young girl describes some of her experiences growing up in Chicago in 1940.

Lila relies on her imagination for solitary games on the landing in her apartment building. Eventually, the neighborhood bully confronts Lila but she stands her ground and finally wins him over. 10 black-and-white drawings.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Excerpt from The Wall How can so charming a boy as Vanya have become such an outrageous little villain? Many a reader who has read the earlier life of Vanya in -the Mask will doubtless propound to the author._ The way out of this dilemma would appear to be to whitewash Vanya, to call his villainy heroism, the progressive disintegration of his character a triumph of civilisation. That, at any rate, would be pleasant to the author, particularly since Vanya has been accused of being none other than the author himself.