The Allies

This book lay almost half a century at the bottom of an old computer before it was published. At the time, it was considered politically ‘inappropriate’ because it was too ‘anti-Russian.’ It was written in America by two political émigrés, refugees from the communist part of the world, who knew Russia as it really is and always has been, even during World War II, when it pretended to be a faithful ally of the United States.

American pilots, crew members of a B 29 bomber, are hit by anti-aircraft fire during a reconnaissance flight over Japan. They make an emergency landing in USSR territory. It would seem that they are safe on the lands of an ally, but the reality turned out to be frighteningly different.

Although this book is historical fiction and its characters are invented, they are woven into real historical events related to the Manhattan Project infiltrated from within by Soviet spies. During Gorbachev’s ‘thaw,’ Stalin was forgotten, and Russia was to be ‘an example and model of democracy’ from then on. Even then, this book was supposed to be a warning; now it is allmost a wake-up call. Today’s Russia, waging a criminal, aggressive war against Ukraine, Russia of Vladimir Putin, with its troll farms, armed green men, murdering disobedient citizens in labor camps, poses an even greater threat to the entire free world.

The Abandoned Woman

Anita stared intently at Kofi unconsciously, trying to conceal her affection for him, yet she couldn’t.

As he stretched his hands and reached out to her, it was obvious that her inviting and prodding eyes were enough for Kofi.

She kissed and moaned under her weakened emotions, kissed him passionately, and sunk into his arms like a defeated wrestler.

All she thought to be true was a dream; all she saw was a mirage. Life had not been fateful to her.

She has been rejected and left to cater for her kid alone. She is exposed to the naked realities of the world and surely unending suffering.

Who is to be blamed for her upbringing? What about her unexpected end?

Tepatasi: Le Au'alumā

Christianity took root in the Pacific, nowhere more so than in Samoa. As World War I raged in Europe, the Great Influenza pandemic landed in Samoa in the winter of 1918. Facing tragic losses in their adopted village, a group of outsiders stayed behind to help. Living on the fringes of society, these women were unexpectedly thrust into the epicenter of the world’s most virulent pandemic. They found purpose as healers among strangers when it was needed most.

Tears in the Danube

William Jurin, a Jewish shop owner in Austria, finds his life turned upside down when Hitler and the Nazis seize control of the country in 1938. Married to a Christian woman, Jurim finds himself in a precarious position, fearing for his safety and the well-being of his family. In a desperate attempt to protect his loved ones and his livelihood, he works tirelessly to transfer his business and apartment to his wife’s name, hoping to keep them within the family.

As the Nazi terror spreads, Jurim faces numerous dangers and obstacles in his quest to secure safe passage to America. The book, based on a poignant letter Jurim wrote to his brother, who was sponsoring his immigration, and to his sister in Poland while traveling by ship to the United States, offers a vivid and heart-wrenching account of the harrowing experiences endured by Austrian Jews under the Nazi regime.

Swan’s War

After Swan Samson’s oldest brother, Isaac, is murdered, Swan, a twenty-year-old Georgian, goes to war to find his brother’s killer and exact the revenge required by his notions of duty and honor. Swan’s War is the story of Swan’s internal struggle, in which the suffering of war and the slavery of revenge transform him completely. Swan easily convinces his two younger brothers to go to war with him. However, his twin brother, Jacob, is not as easily swayed. Jacob is in love with a slave girl and has no interest in fighting for the Confederacy. He also disdains Swan’s judgments about duty and honor.

Nevertheless, Swan persuades his twin brother to join the war and search for Isaac’s murderer by appealing to Jacob’s close relationship with their slain brother. Jacob will search for Isaac’s killer, while Swan seeks glory and revenge to repair his sullied reputation, which was compromised when he accidentally killed his best friend at the age of thirteen. During the war, Swan watches his younger brothers die, loses his fiancée, suffers grievous wounds, endures a year in a POW camp, and pursues, fights, and kills the man he thought had murdered his brother – only to find out that the real killer is someone he had known his whole life.

While Swan’s War is set during the Civil War and written by a historian, it is not really about that conflict. Rather, it is a character-driven story of the protagonist’s war within himself. The story includes strong female and enslaved characters, as well as family disputes. The protagonist and several of the main characters are based on the author’s ancestors.

Shouts

It is 1915. A great war is coming to America. You are in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, a bastion of ethnic German enterprise and culture, and struggling Irish laborers. German spies and saboteurs roam the city. Firebrand Irish soapbox orators inflame crowds with anti-war speeches. Paranoia, hatred, and politics rage in the streets. The social and economic fabric of the city begins to unravel.

Enraged by the sinking of the Lusitania, pro-war thugs severely injure a German junk dealer and his grandson, young Tommy Muldoon. The boy’s Irish nationalist father collaborates with German terrorists with disastrous consequences for himself and his family. Under this tumultuous backdrop, young Muldoon takes over the junk business and sets out to save his family, by day in the junkyard, by night taking boxing instruction from a Catholic priest.

A sumptuous tapestry, interwoven with meticulously researched details, SHOUTS tells of the last days of the pre-World War I golden age. The richly detailed narrative orchestrates the profuse voices of its characters--priests and bartenders, boxers and violinists, politicians and brew masters. The book resounds with the symphony of those tempestuous days full tone and tint. And at the end, Tommy Muldoon stands alone in the ring facing his destiny. And the reader, by knowing better those particular times past, now better understands the times today.

Shells on the Sand

Shells on the Sand chronicles a family’s escape from Kuwait during the First Gulf War. Based on a true story that is fictionalized for dramatic effect, the novel takes its readers on a journey through a perilous region that maintains deep roots to our civilization. Readers will learn about the history of the Muslim Caliphate, Saladin and Richard the Lionheart, the Ottomans, Mongols, and Ancient Baghdad as the family journeys through the region in search for solace and refuge. Tales and events that significantly shaped our history and reverberate to this day will be told about a region many Westerners regard as tumultuous, but that maintains unparalleled diversity in history, science, and culture. Similar published works include True Kuwait Stories by AMA Smith, and Minarets in the Mountains by Tharik Hussain.

Searching for Home: An Immigrant's Journey from Ukraine to the USA

It’s 1913 in the village of Mlyniv, Ukraine. 19-year-old Effrosinia has escaped her abusive husband and returns to her family’s dacha.

Discovery of her escape by the village elders would lead to public punishment, since at that time a wife was considered to be her husband’s property.

What can her family do to protect her?  

Rouse of Widowhood

“Women like myself!” I saluted to a rousing reception.

"We are here!" the women chorused. I stood in the middle of the women. They gathered around me on all sides at the square entrance of Eke-oha market.

“Women like myself!!”

“We are here!!”

“Women like myself!!!”

“We are here!!!” They responded a third time.

"Today, the wind has blown, and we can now see the behind of the fowl. We now know that these white rulers do not like us, and our men do not like us too."

“Who bears nine months of labor pains?”

“We do, we do.”

“Who bears all the labor of housework and raising the children?”

“We do, we do.”

“Who tends the men and nourishes all their desires?”

“We do, we do.”

“Women like myself!”

“We are here!”

“We shall not be counted. We will not pay tax. We will not pay tax because we bear the children and we bear the fire of kitchen coals on our palms.”

“It is the truth, it is the truth.”

"Where the rat eats is where it falls. The men must tell us why the hen must always be spread-eagled for the randy cockerel.”

"Today, we will burn down the courthouse, and we will have their red caps."

The women needed no more prodding. My last statement had aroused their anger. 

Roots & the Remittance Man

In Roots & the Remittance Man, a captivating historical fiction, we follow a diverse family tree as its branches converge in the Carrot River Valley of the Northwest Territories in 1902. From Sweden, Muskoka, and Iowa, these intrepid settlers make their way to homestead near Melfort, Saskatchewan.

A Scottish family, burdened by loss from an epidemic, travels by wagon train, finding salvation in a Cree chief. In Sweden, tragedy strikes, and a widowed wife and her daughters board a cattle ship for Halifax. They arrive in Winnipeg, accept a cook position at a Melfort hotel, and embark on a grueling journey through forest and muskeg.

A young Norwegian man walks 700 miles to the United States-Canadian border, immerses himself in Indigenous history, and follows a freight swing to his homestead. Settlers and Indigenous peoples unite against prairie fires, forging bonds that transcend their differences.

Through decades, the family experiences joys and sorrows, weathering the storms of two World Wars, prohibition, swamp fever, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Great Depression. As technology advances, women gain the right to vote and become legally recognized as persons.

At the outset of World War II, a remittance man from Scotland enters the picture, his life becoming significantly entwined with the descendants of these resilient pioneers. Roots & the Remittance Man is a sweeping tale of perseverance, unity, and the indomitable human spirit that shaped the Canadian frontier.

Puzzles and Paradoxes

Embark on an intellectual adventure with Puzzles and Paradoxes, a captivating book that presents 33 thought-provoking questions spanning history, the physical world, biology, philosophy, specific events, and miscellaneous topics, enticing readers to unravel mysteries and seek profound understanding.

From the fall of Rome to the Golden Age of Greece, from the enigmas of the mind-body problem to the origins of life on Earth, from free will to the problem of evil, and from the invention of spectacles to the Monty Hall Problem and the Voynich Manuscript, this compelling collection explores diverse realms of knowledge, offering possible answers that inspire contemplation and ignite the joy of intellectual discovery.

Promises for Tomorrow

Rekha is a 12-year-old girl growing up as the eldest daughter of Indian immigrants in South Africa during the 1940s and 1950s. Despite her strong and determined nature, she is innocent in many ways and struggles with her life as the cook, cleaner, and caregiver for her family, all while enduring emotional and physical abuse from her mother. As an Indian female, she is controlled, abused, and marginalized, and is expected to fulfill the patriarchal role of a ‘suitable wife.’

When she discovers she is promised to a boy from a ‘good family,’ Rekha dreams of a life filled with love, financial stability, and freedom, in an effort to escape her current life of hardship. Through Rekha’s story, we gain insight into the unique South African Indian experience, including customs and traditions surrounding marriage, childbirth, and death, as well as the struggles of newly arrived merchant immigrants trying to survive and succeed in a colonial, racist, and apartheid society.