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The Fatwa Girl The Fatwa Girl is a 2011 novel by Pakistani author Akbar Agha. It is story of love and innocence lost in the Pakistan of today, where modernity is symbolized by the possession of a nuclear bomb, but where religious hatreds are as old as time itself. Plot summary. "Amor vincit omnia"—love conquers all, but in a land which has been conquered from the Moguls to the British and now where the Taliban and fundamentalists strive for hegemony, a young man named Omar faces a battle in winning the hand of the girl he loves. It is in this milieu that two lovers try to forge not only a relationship for themselves but also a society where peace and sanity prevail, battling the forces of hatred and sectarianism that threaten to tear their worlds —and a nation— apart. At once a quirky exploration of a society on edge and a tender tale of shattered innocence, "The Fatwa Girl", reveals a deep understanding of the human heart and its often mysterious attachments.

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Sultan of Najd Sultan of Najd (Arabic: سلطان نجد) is a political economic novel by Abdullah Al-Salloum. The novel (Subtitled: "The throne advocating for fair wealth distribution -" Arabic: الحكم المناصر لعدالة توزيع الثروة) interprets –within the ancient Ukhaydhariya State– a series of events that exposed what was unknown by the throne, not only within the monetary scope, but the state politics, where the Emir gets introduced to reforming schemes meant to achieve the state’s sustainability. The title was ranked the third bestseller on Amazon's Arabic Literature and Fiction category.

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Pinaglahuan Pinaglahuan (literally "the point or place where someone or something disappeared" or "fading point") is a Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Faustino S. Aguilar. Aguilar completed the manuscript on September 25, 1906. The novel was published by Manila Filateco in Manila, Philippines in 1907. The novel was written during the American period in Philippine history (1898-1946). Description. According to Soledad Reyes, Faustino's "Pinaglahuan" was a pioneer novel in Philippine literature that tackled social realism in the Philippines, meaning it was one of the first books to focus on the realistic state of Philippine society. Faustino wrote the novel after being influenced by the socialist teaching of 19th century European thinkers. Pinaglahuan was Faustino's response against imperialism and colonialism. Characters. Among the characters of the novel were Luis Gatbuhay, Don Nicanor, Danding, and Rojalde. Luis Gatbuhay was a labor leader. Danding is Gatbuhay's girlfriend and daughter of Don Nicanor. Rojalde was a wealthy mestizo to whom Don Nicanor wanted to betroth Danding, instead of Gatbuhay. Gatbuhay was the representation of the masses or the common Filipino people. Plot. Set during the early 20th century in the Philippines, Pinaglahuan narrates the story of the life of Luis Gatbuhay, the labor leader whose life was ruined by the mestizo class, represented by Rojalde. The first scene in Pinaglahuan depicted a meeting inside the Teatro Zorilla (Zorilla Theatre). The purpose of the gathering was about the call to free the Philippines from the American occupiers. Another scene depicted the confrontation between Gatbuhay and Don Nicanor while inside a carriage. Don Nicanor wanted to marry off Danding to Rojalde because the purpose of paying off his gambling debt. Luis lost his job because of Rojalde's power and influence. In addition, Rojalde implicated Gatbuhay to a crime and was imprisoned for four years. Rojalde and Danding became husband and wife, but Danding gave birth to Gatbuhay's child. At the ending scene of the novel, Gatbuhay was killed by a bomb explosion inside the prison.

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Mga Anak-Bukid Mga Anak-Bukid (literally "Children of the Farmlands", the title can be translated simply as "The Farmlanders") is a 1911 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Rosauro C. Almario. Published by the Limbagang Cultura Filipina in Manila, Philippines, the novel narrates how the Filipinos who became the so-called "pensionados" undermined the traditional values and mores in the Philippines, including the people who acted as supporters and upholders of those conventional customs and norms. Description. "Mga Anak-Bukid" is about the life of an ordinary farming couple, namely Tonyo and Juli. They were supposed to get married, but on the day before the wedding ceremony, Juli was raped by the "pensionado" (literally "pensioner", someone receiving a salary or pension) named George, a Filipino representing the government of the United States. Through his job as a journalist, George criticized and attacked the traditional values and mores of the Filipinos in the Philippines. Through his newspaper columns, George dismissed the long-established rituals and practices in the Philippines as laughable, old-fashioned, and as things that should remain only in the past. In the meantime, Tonyo was still willing to marry Juli despite of the circumstances. However, Juli was no longer enthusiastic in accepting Tonyo as her husband because her honor as a woman had been defiled. Honor and virginity is important in traditional Filipino culture. Tonyo avenged himself and Juli by tricking George. Unaware of the trap set by Tony and Juli, George agreed to meet with Juli. When George went to the appointed place, he was slain by Tonyo. Then Tonyo and Juli ran away into the mountains, both in agreement that there was no righteousness and hope for them if they stay in the lowlands. The book is made up of 78 pages.

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Xin Zhongguo weilai ji Xin Zhongguo weilai ji (, translated as The Future of New China) is an unfinished 1902 novel by Liang Qichao. Liang described a China in 1962 that was a utopia, a world power, wealthy, Confucian, and a constitutional monarchy. He believed that it would be in a "perfect mood". Author David Der-wei Wang described most of the novel as "an instructional political treatise where the virtues of various modes of government are lucidly debated." Plot. In the preface the author apologizes for what is paraphrased in "The Unfinished History of China's Future" by John Fitzgerald as a "rambling quality" due to the inability to put it in a particular genre due to its content, as it was not a historical account, nor was it an orthodox fictional story. The novel begins at the ending and then continues at the beginning of the story; this is called the "flashback technique", a concept that was newly introduced in late Qing China. The novel begins in 1962, or year of Confucius 2513, and shows a 50th anniversary celebration of a Shanghai-based reform movement in which a World Expo and peace treaty signings occur. The celebrated reform movement was the Constitutional Party (xianzhengdang), an umbrella movement of secret society and pro-reform or revolution groups. By 1962 there were three political parties: the Patriotic Self-Government Party (Aiguo zizhidang), the Liberal Party (ziyoudang), and the State Power Party (guoquandang). These three are decentralist, individualist, and centralist, respectively. The "Hungarian Conference" resulted in the 1962 International Peace Conference, held in Shanghai in January of that year, in which China is recognized as the most dominant county on Earth. In the story people in foreign countries, including those in the West, study Chinese to get ahead, and foreign students in China remain in China after the conclusion of their studies, causing brain drain in the West. In Chapter 2, Kong Hongdao (孔弘道; meaning "expander of the Dao"), style name Juemin (; meaning "enlightener of the people"), a 72nd generation descendant of Confucius, gives a lecture in which he discusses how a reformed China came to be, covering the period 1903-1962. The lectures are called "China's History These Sixty Years Past." The audience includes 1,000 students from various countries, with each one having total fluency in Chinese. Kong Hongdao had studied in the West before returning to China. Kong Hongdao describes the genesis of the Constitutional Party (Xianzheng dang), which guides China's reform. Kong Hongdao states that China underwent six stages before being reformed, but the novel describes only a portion of the first stage. Kong states that the stages are: preparation, autonomy of various districts, unification of all of China, building things and producing goods, competing with other countries, and finally becoming the global superpower. The historical overview is a small portion of Kong's lecture. This section includes debates between the characters Huang Keqiang (黄克強) and Li Qubing (李去病), who discuss whether China should experience a revolution or be reformed. Huang Keqiang's father, an academic from Guangdong, sent him and Li Qubing to Oxford University; due to the Hundred Days Reform they do not immediately return to China, and they experience anti-Chinese sentiment from the Europeans. On their way back to China, Li Qubing argues the Qing Dynasty government needs to be abolished, while Huang Keqiang argues it can be reformed. The debates, transcribed verbatim within Kong Hongdao's speech, make up the bulk of the speech. Huang Keqiang and Li Qubing established the Constitutional Party. There is no more content after Chapter 5. David Wang stated that the absence of the middle portions of the storyline means that the novel does not have its "progressive "narrative"" or "the "historical" time to make the future accessible and intelligible." Development. Liang Qichao, who believed that China would later adopt a parliamentary democracy as its form of government, was influenced by the 1888 American novel "Looking Backward" and the 1886 Japanese novel "Setchubai" ("Plum Blossoms in the Snow"). As part of his research he visited Australia for six months. Liang Qichao considered making two sequels, with the second being "The Future of Old China", and the third being "New Peach Blossom Spring". The second would be about a China that decides not to adapt to a new era and therefore falls into ruin, while the third would be about the descendants of Chinese who had established a civilization on an island away from China; these people come back to China to improve it. According to Chloë F. Starr, the author of "Red-light Novels of the late Qing", the novel stopped publication due to a decline in the sale of serial magazines. David Wang stated in "" that Liang Qichao had changed his vision of how a new China would be established, and that this and several other factors resulted in a halt in the novel's development. David Wang concluded that the fact that the book was never completed was "symptomatic of Liang's inabilities to come to terms with a new temporal paradigm." Reception. David Wang compared this novel with "Taiwan Straits: 1999" by Yao Chia-wen arguing that they both had nationalistic elements. Several works had been inspired by this novel, including "Xin Zhongguo", a 1910 novel by Lu Shi'e; and "New Era", a 1908 novel by Bigehuan zhuren.

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Luha ng Buwaya Luha ng Buwaya or, "Crocodile's Tear" in translation, is a novel written by Palanca Awardee and Filipino novelist Amado V. Hernandez. It consists of 53 chapters. The story is about poor farmers uniting against the greedy desires of the prominent family of the Grandes. In Filipino idioms, "crocodiles" were used to symbolize those people who are corrupt. The "buwaya" (crocodile) in the title refers to the Grandes family, who were greedy for money. Description. "Luha ng Buwaya", together with Hernandez's other novel "Mga Ibong Mandaragit", was based on his personal experiences while imprisoned in the New Bilibid Prison from 1951 until his release on parole in 1956. The novel was about peasants from a barrio and their leader, in the person of a school teacher, fighting against oppression and greed. Through their action, the people find renewed belief in their capabilities. In a larger perspective, "Luha ng Buwaya" was Hernandez's realistic embodiment of the socio-political crisis happening in the Philippines during the 1930s until the 1950s. Hernandez wrote the novel employing an "easy style" and contemporary Pilipino language. While writing the manuscript for Luha ng Buwaya, Hernandez was also acting as the editor of the prison newspaper named "Muntinglupa Courier".

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Democracy or Demo Crazy Democracy or DemoCrazy is a political satire novel wrote by Seyyed Mahdi Shojaee in Persian and translated to English by Caroline Croskery. Democracy or DemoCrazy was published by Candle and Fog Publishing in 2014. This book also published by Createspace Publishing in 2015. Synopsis. The government has changed from a monarchy to a democracy by order of a king who had ascended to the throne by succession. While the people have now attained the right to vote, the only candidates are the king's twenty-four sons, who will each serve for terms lasting two years. In the successive reign of each brother, oppression and injustice abound, and they spend their terms feasting, pillaging and plundering the country as much as possible, lining their pockets with enough cash to live out their days in luxury. Each time heading up to the new election, the people take refuge in their wishful thinking that the administration of the “next” prince will make things better. But things never change. The princes had all inherited their grandfather's first name, “Demo” as a prefix to their names. The king had named his twenty-fifth son who was lacking in both appearance, intelligence and character, Demo C’est Assez (meaning Demo “is enough”) but this last prince became known among the people instead as Demo Crazy because of his devious mind and volatile behavior. In an effort to deny any of the twenty-four brothers a second chance at the throne, the people finally decide to vote for prince number twenty-five, Demo Crazy, who is in no way considered qualified for the position. The people actually do not believe that he will win, but they vote for him because they believe that he will most likely be the least brutal, and less of a tyrant than any of the other brothers. Demo Crazy forms a circle of cohorts and enacts his own Demo Crazian principles which consist of a combination of oppression and deception of the masses. He embarks upon a mission to destroy the country, playing off his actions as a “service” to the people. As it turns out, he is really in fact an enemy agent, who after ultimately fleeing his own country and ta king refuge in enemy lands, surrenders his nation to them. The behavior and documented speeches of Demo Crazy are truly astonishing, and even more unusual are the laws and regulations he exercised in ruling over his country. The question of whether or not the standard and conventional democracy in the world today is predicated upon the principles and methods that Demo Crazy carried out in this book is presented only as food for thought and not as a steadfast claim. The answer to this question will be left for the reader to decide. About the Author. Seyyed Mahdi Shojaee was born on August 1960 in Tehran. He is famous for his outstanding books on spiritual themes. After obtaining his high school diploma in mathematics, Shojaee entered the Dramatic Arts Faculty where he was conferred a bachelor's degree in Dramatic Literature. Simultaneously, he studied Political Science at Tehran University's Faculty of Law and Political Science, but left his studies unfinished to pursue a career in writing. About the Translator. Caroline Croskery was born in the United States and moved to Iran at the age of twenty-one. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in Iranian Studies. For many years she has been active in three fields of specialization: Language Teaching, Translation and Interpretation, and Voiceover Acting. She has taught English at the Iran Language Institute in Iran, translated feature films for subtitling at Farabi Cinema and Hozeh Honari, and performed actor dubbing of Persian films into English at IRIB, Sahar. Having lived in Iran for thirteen years, she returned to the US and began a ten-year career as a Persian-language interpreter for the Los Angeles County Superior Courts. She is an accomplished voiceover talent, and currently continues her voiceover career in both English and Persian.

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Political fiction Political fiction employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction, such as political novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantastic, reality". The political novel overlaps with the social novel, proletarian novel, and social science fiction. Plato's "Republic", a Socratic dialogue written around 380 BC, has been one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically. The "Republic" is concerned with justice (), the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man. Other influential politically-themed works include Thomas More's "Utopia" (1516), Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726), Voltaire's "Candide" (1759), and Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852). Political fiction frequently employs satire, often in the utopian and dystopian genres. This includes totalitarian dystopias of the early 20th century such as Jack London's "The Iron Heel", Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here", and George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Political satire. The Greek playwright Aristophanes' plays are known for their political and social satire, particularly in his criticism of the powerful Athenian general, Cleon, in plays such as "The Knights". Aristophanes is also notable for the persecution he underwent. Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease. His bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian Menander, whose early play, "Drunkenness", contains an attack on the politician, Callimedon. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" (1729) is an 18th-century Juvenalian satirical essay in which he suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. The satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as British policy toward the Irish in general. George Orwell's "Animal Farm" (1945) is an allegorical and dystopian novella which satirises the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Soviet Union's Stalinist era. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and was hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism—an attitude that had been shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. Orwell described his "Animal Farm" as "a satirical tale against Stalin", and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946) he wrote that "Animal Farm" was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole." Orwell's most famous work, however, is "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (published in 1949), many of whose terms and concepts, such as "Big Brother", "doublethink", "thoughtcrime", "Newspeak", "Room 101", "telescreen", "2 + 2 = 5", and "memory hole", have entered into common use. "Nineteen Eighty-Four" popularised the adjective "Orwellian", which describes official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state. 16th century. The poet Jan Kochanowski's play, "The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys" (1578), the first tragedy written in the Polish language, recounts an incident leading up to the Trojan War. Its theme of the responsibilities of statesmanship resonates to the present day. 18th century. The political comedy, "The Return of the Deputy" (1790), by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz—Polish poet, playwright, statesman, and comrade-in-arms of Tadeusz Kościuszko—was written in about two weeks' time while Niemcewicz was serving as a deputy to the historic Four-Year Sejm of 1788–92. The comedy's premiere in January 1791 was an enormous success, sparking widespread debate, royal communiques, and diplomatic correspondence. As Niemcewicz had hoped, it set the stage for passage of Poland's epochal Constitution of 3 May 1791, which is regarded as Europe's first, and the world's second, modern written national constitution, after the United States Constitution implemented in 1789. The comedy pits proponents against opponents of political reforms: of abolishing the destabilizing free election of Poland's kings; of abolishing the legislatively destructive "liberum veto"; of granting greater rights to peasants and townspeople; of curbing the privileges of the mostly self-interested noble class; and of promoting a more active Polish role in international affairs, in the interest of stopping the depredations of Poland's neighbors, Russia, Prussia, and Austria (who will in 1795 complete the dismemberment of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). Romantic interest is provided by a rivalry between a reformer and a conservative for a young lady's hand—which is won by the proponent of reforms. 19th-century novel. An early example of the political novel is "The Betrothed" (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian historical novel. Set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years of direct Spanish rule, it has been seen sometimes as a veiled attack on the Austrian Empire, which controlled Italy at the time the novel was written. It has been called the most famous and widely read novel in the Italian language. In the 1840s British politician Benjamin Disraeli wrote a trilogy of novels with political themes. With "Coningsby; or, The New Generation" (1844), Disraeli, in historian Robert Blake's view, "infused the novel genre with political sensibility, espousing the belief that England's future as a world power depended not on the complacent old guard, but on youthful, idealistic politicians." "Coningsby" was followed by "Sybil; or, The Two Nations" (1845), another political novel, which was less idealistic and more clear-eyed than "Coningsby"; the "two nations" of its subtitle referred to the huge economic and social gap between the privileged few and the deprived working classes. The last of Disraeli's political-novel trilogy, "Tancred; or, The New Crusade" (1847), promoted the Church of England's role in reviving Britain's flagging spirituality. Ivan Turgenev wrote "Fathers and Sons" (1862) as a response to the growing cultural schism that he saw between Russia's liberals of the 1830s and 1840s, and the growing Russian nihilist movement among their sons. Both the nihilists and the 1830s liberals sought Western-based social change in Russia. Additionally, these two modes of thought were contrasted with the Slavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in its traditional spirituality. Turgenev's novel was responsible for popularizing the use of the term "nihilism", which became widely used after the novel was published. The Polish writer Bolesław Prus' novel, "Pharaoh" (1895), is set in the Egypt of 1087–85 BCE as that country experiences internal stresses and external threats that will culminate in the fall of its Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom. The young protagonist Ramses learns that those who would challenge the powers that be are vulnerable to co-option, seduction, subornation, defamation, intimidation, and assassination. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, of knowledge. Prus' vision of the fall of an ancient civilization derives some of its power from the author's intimate awareness of the final demise of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, a century before he completed "Pharaoh". This is a political awareness that Prus shared with his 10-years-junior novelist compatriot, Joseph Conrad, who was an admirer of Prus' writings. "Pharaoh" has been translated into 20 languages and adapted as a 1966 Polish feature film. It is also known to have been Joseph Stalin's favourite book. 20th-century novel. Joseph Conrad wrote several novels with political themes: "Nostromo (1904)", "The Secret Agent" (1907), and "Under Western Eyes" (1911). "Nostromo" (1904) is set amid political upheaval in the fictitious South American country of Costaguana, where a trusted Italian-descended longshoreman, Giovanni Battista Fidanza—the novel's eponymous "Nostromo" (Italian for "our man")—is instructed by English-descended silver-mine owner Charles Gould to take Gould's silver abroad so that it will not fall into the hands of revolutionaries. The role of politics is paramount in "The Secret Agent", as the main character, Verloc, works for a quasi-political organisation. The plot to destroy Greenwich Observatory is in itself anarchistic. Vladimir asserts that the bombing "must be purely destructive" and that the anarchists who will be implicated as the architects of the explosion "should make it clear that [they] are perfectly determined to make a clean sweep of the whole social creation." However, the political form of anarchism is ultimately controlled in the novel: the only supposed politically motivated act is orchestrated by a secret government agency. Conrad's third political novel, "Under Western Eyes", is connected to Russian history. Its first audience read it against the backdrop of the failed Revolution of 1905 and in the shadow of the movements and impulses that would take shape as the revolutions of 1917. Conrad's earlier novella, "Heart of Darkness" (1899), also had political implications, in its depiction of European colonial depredations in Africa, which Conrad witnessed during his employ in the Belgian Congo. John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939) is a depiction of the plight of the poor. However, some Steinbeck's contemporaries attacked his social and political views. Bryan Cordyack writes: "Steinbeck was attacked as a propagandist and a socialist from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The most fervent of these attacks came from the Associated Farmers of California; they were displeased with the book's depiction of California farmers' attitudes and conduct toward the migrants. They denounced the book as a 'pack of lies' and labeled it 'communist propaganda'". Some accused Steinbeck of exaggerating camp conditions to make a political point. Steinbeck had visited the camps well before publication of the novel and argued that their inhumane nature destroyed the settlers' spirit. "The Quiet American" (1955) by English novelist Graham Greene questions the foundations of growing American involvement in Vietnam in the 1950s. The novel has received much attention due to its prediction of the outcome of the Vietnam War and subsequent American foreign policy since the 1950s. Graham Greene portrays a U.S. official named Pyle as so blinded by American exceptionalism that he cannot see the calamities he brings upon the Vietnamese. The book uses Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for "The Times" and "Le Figaro" in French Indochina in 1951–54. "The Gay Place" (1961) is a set of politically-themed novellas with interlocking plots and characters by American author Billy Lee Brammer. Set in an unnamed state identical to Texas, each novella has a different protagonist: Roy Sherwood, a member of the state legislature; Neil Christiansen, the state's junior senator; and Jay McGown, the governor's speech-writer. The governor himself, Arthur Fenstemaker, a master politician (said to have been based on Brammer's mentor Lyndon Johnson) serves as the dominant figure throughout. The book also includes characters based on Brammer, his wife Nadine, Johnson's wife Ladybird, and his brother Sam Houston Johnson. The book has been widely acclaimed one of the best American political novels ever written. 21st Century Novels. Since 2000, there has been a surge of Transatlantic migrant literature in French, Spanish, and English, with new narratives about political topics relating to global debt, labor abuses, mass migration, and environmental crises in the Global South. Political fiction by contemporary novelists from the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America directly challenges political leadership, systemic racism, and economical systems. Fatou Diome, a Senegalese immigrant living France since the 1990s, writes political fiction about her experiences on France's unwelcoming borders that are dominated by white Christian culture. The work of Guadeloupean author Maryse Condé also tackles colonialism and oppression; her best known titles are "Ségou" (1984) and "Ségou II" (1985). Set in historical Segou (now part of Mali), the novels examine the violent legacies of the slave trade, Islam, Christianity, and colonization (from 1797 to 1860). A bold critic of the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, French novelist Marie Ndiayes won the Prix Goncourt for "Three Strong Women"(2009) about patriarchal control. Proletarian novel. The proletarian novel is written by workers, mainly for other workers. It overlaps and sometimes is synonymous with the working-class novel, socialist novel, social-problem novel (also problem novel, sociological novel, or social novel), propaganda or thesis novel, and socialist-realism novel. The intention of the writers of proletarian literature is to lift the workers from the slums by inspiring them to embrace the possibilities of social change or of a political revolution. As such, it is a form of political fiction. The proletarian novel may comment on political events, systems, and theories, and is frequently seen as an instrument to promote social reform or political revolution among the working classes. Proletarian literature is created especially by communist, socialist, and anarchist authors. It is about the lives of the poor, and the period from 1930 to 1945, in particular, produced many such novels. However, proletarian works were also produced before and after those dates. In Britain, the terms "working-class" literature, novel, etc., are more generally used. Social novel. A closely related type of novel, which frequently has a political dimension, is the social novel – also known as the "social-problem" or "social-protest" novel – a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". More specific examples of social problems that are addressed in such works include poverty, conditions in factories and mines, the plight of child labor, violence against women, rising criminality, and epidemics caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation in cities. Charles Dickens was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens "issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together". On the other hand, George Orwell, in his essay on Dickens, wrote: "There is no clear sign that he wants the existing order to be overthrown, or that he believes it would make very much difference if it were overthrown. For in reality his target is not so much society as 'human nature'." Dickens's second novel, "Oliver Twist" (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime: it destroyed middle-class polemics about criminals, making any pretence to ignorance about what poverty entailed impossible. Charles Dickens's "Hard Times" (1854) is set in a small Midlands industrial town and particularly criticizes the effect of Utilitarianism on the lives of cities' working classes. John Ruskin declared "Hard Times" his favourite Dickens work due to its exploration of important social questions. Walter Allen characterised "Hard Times" as an unsurpassed "critique of industrial society", Notable examples. "This is a list of a few of the early or notable examples; others belong on the main list"

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From the Fatherland, with Love is a novel by Ryū Murakami, first published in Japanese in 2005 and translated into English in 2013 by Ralph McCarthy, Charles De Wolf, and Ginny Tapley. The novel depicts an alternate history in which North Korea invades and then occupies Japan in 2011. Awards. "From the Fatherland With Love" was awarded the 59th and the 58th Noma Literary Prize in 2005.

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Maganda pa ang Daigdig Maganda pa ang Daigdig (officially translated as "The World Be Lovely Still"; the literal translation is "The World is Still Beautiful") is a Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Lázaro Francisco. Plot. The novel is about Lino Rivera, a gardener, who lost faith in an "oppressive social system" in the Philippines. Lino was accused of committing robbery and homicide. Lino escapes from prison to live a life of a fugitive. He defended an “enlightened landlord” against the Hukbalahap of Central Luzon and against former guerrillas who were active during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Convinced by Colonel Roda, Padre Amando, among other "kindhearted people", Lino comes down from the mountain, turning his back from living the life of a fugitive. Description. The novel was first appeared as a serial in 1955 on the pages of "Liwayway" magazine. It was first published in book form by the Ateneo de Manila University Press in 1982. The 362-page novel was republished in 1989. In 1992, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) chose "Maganda pa ang Daigdig" as a less known literary work authored by a Filipino writer that has "high artistic merit" and "worthy of translation to introduce to an international readership".

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Sherds (novel) Sherds (“fragments of pottery” or "potsherds") is a 2007 short novel or novelette written by Filipino National Artist for Literature and multi-awarded author F. Sionil José. According to Elmer A. Ordoñez, a writer from "The Manila Times", in "Sherds" José achieved “lyrical effects”, specially in the novel’s final chapters, by putting into “good use” Joseph Conrad’s and Ford Madox Ford’s so-called "progression d’effet" (literally "progression of the effect"). "Sherds" is the latest and last novel by José. According to "The Atlantic" National Correspondent James Fallows, the novel is dedicated to the author’s wife Teresita José. The novel, which can be read in one sitting, was described by Li-an de la Cruz-Busto, a reporter for "Sun.Star Davao" as “very light but candid and insightful”, a description that complements "The Manila Times" reporter Perry Gil S. Mallari’s calling José’s "Sherds" as an “easy read and a guaranteed page-turner”. A novel composed of twelve chapters with a "tight and palpable" narrative pacing, "Sherds" deals with topics related to "personal conscience, greed and the position of art" in social class struggle, thus serving as a cogitation on "what is wrong" with the Philippines as a nation. José wrote "Sherds" while he was in Japan. Description. Like José’s other novels and stories such as the "Rosales Saga", "Sherds" is another presentation and “meditation” by the author regarding “class conflict” and “malaise in society” in the Philippines through the use of “non-ideological terms” and sharing of his personal knowledge of the “travails of the original tillers of the soil” and the dispossession of the land-tillers through the workings of the oligarchs. Employing a story-telling technique that begins with the “ending of the story, in "medias res"”, José narrates the tale of the discovery made by Peter Gregory Golangco (also known simply as PG Golangco), a pottery-and-ceramics artist, art professor, and aesthete, through the “Pygmalion-like nurturing” of Guia Espiritu, Golangco’s student who has an elemental idea of art that is “grounded in the clay of oppressed people” of the Philippine countryside. As an “art and society” novel, the ninth chapter of "Sherds" showed Golangco as an aesthete questioned about his pose and position regarding social protest and his views about Pablo Picasso and Francisco Goya during an art exhibit. Golangco is a believer that “art thrives on freedom”. However, a guest during the exhibition countered Golangco’s belief by saying that freedom is a “political condition” and that Golangco is a free person because of influence and the financial means to buy freedom, which is contrary to the so-called unpampered and unfree “artists of the people”. Despite such "questioning", Golangco was applauded. Surprised, Golangco retreated to Café Guernica, where he became “almost inconsolable” until Golangco was reassured by two female companions. According to Elmer A. Ordoñez, this scene in "Sherds", is where Golangco’s “education of the aesthete” started. The novel is full of symbolism. The primary example of such usage of symbolism is the clay used by PG Golangco in making pots. The clay symbolizes the oppressed villagers in Espiritu's barrio. As a symbolic element of the narrative, the clay has a fundamental function at the finale of the novel. Principal characters. The major protagonists of the novel are Peter Gregory Golangco and Guia Espiritu. Golangco, a recognized art scholar abroad and a member of a hacienda-owning clan, was a student, artist, academic, and occasional “sybaritic delights” indulger who decided to return to the Philippines. Golangco was oblivious to the fact that the Golangcos who stayed in the Philippines were the source of oppression, death, and poverty in the village in his hometown. The Golangco clan has a thriving business enterprise inside and outside the Philippines. The clan also participated in Philippine politics through elections and accepting appointments to positions at the “higher echelons” of the Philippine Government. PG Golangco had a “long-standing affair” with the dean of the university where he is teaching. The dean was a former student of Golangco. PG Golangco was unaware that the Golangcos were responsible for the demise of the parents of Guia Espiritu, Golangco's student. Guia Espiritu is Golangco’s student-assistant and “protégé in grooming”. Espiritu described the Philippines as a country and society that remained semi-feudal and semi-colonial. Despite being the art student, Espiritu became Golangco’s “educator of the aesthete”. Espiritu introduced and mentored Golangco about the clay and pottery practices of her parents and in her village. Such introduction and mentoring lead Golangco to the “aesthetics and pedagogy” of the oppressed and the dispossessed, and eventually to Golangco’s discovery of Espiritu’s origins. Golangco became intrigued by of the “strange happenings in his own household and dealings” with Espiritu.

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Jagari Jagari or Jagori (, English: "The Vigil" or "Awake") is a Bengali novel written by Satinath Bhaduri. The novel is considered to be a master-piece of Indian literature and it was first published in 1945. It is a semi-autobiographical novel and it is set the 1940s's during the Quit India Movement. Plot. The novel is written in first-person narrative, but from four different people's point of view. During India's freedom movement Bilu, an Indian revolutionary is sentenced to death. The novel starts in the jail custody at the last night before the convict is to be hanged. The first chapter is written from that Bilu's perspective, where he narrates his own life and experiences. It also tells the inhuman trials and tortures he faced. The second, third and fourth chapter narrate the same story from his father, mother and brother's perspectives. All of them await the capital punishment while explaining their own thoughts, anxiety and experiences. Theme. The novel is written in the background of the Quit India Movement (1942). It narrates common Bengali people's involvement in India's freedom movement. Satinath Bhaduri had direct experience of contemporary Indian politics and the Quit India movement. He added many autobiographical elements in the plot. Publication. The novel was first published in 1945. It was author's debut novel. Right after the publication it became popular among Bengali readers. Sisir Kumar Das, in his book "History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956, struggle for freedom : triumph and tragedy" wrote that this novel is "one of the finest political novel" written in Bengali. In a 2014 "Scroll.in" article, the novel was included in one of the "five must-read books of Bengali literature". Awards. The book received the following awards:

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Masha, or the Fourth Reich Masha, or the Fourth Reich is a dystopian novel by Lithuanian/Ukrainian author Jaroslav Melnik. Published in 2013 in Lithuanian (as ‘Maša, arba Postfašizmas’) by the largest publishing house company group in the Baltic states Alma littera, it was shortlisted for the Book of the Year Awards. 18 reviews have been published about this novel. Critics call this thriller ‘a shocking book that can be a bestseller in Western countries’. ‘In this book the author fulfilled Hitler's dream’. In 2016 the novel was published in Ukraine and became a bestseller (BBC Book of the Year Award shortlist) . In 2020, the novel was published in France by Actes Sud. Plot introduction. Hitler dreamed of a Reich. If the National Socialists had realized their dream, what would the "post-fascist" society look a thousand years later? After all, already in the 20th century the inmates of Auschwitz had lost their human status and were debased to the level of animals, their body parts used to fulfill the consumer needs of the 'higher race'. The result? In a thousand years the inferior race has transformed into human-like animals called stors. At the start of this story, the main character is a journalist of an official newspaper; later he gradually joins with a group who can no longer abide the horrifying legacy of the past. Little by little his conscience awakes. The plot revolves around the main character and what happens when he falls in love with a she-stor Masha. Reception. “Masha, or the Fourth Reich” – a novel which overwhelms and makes one become more sensitive. Openly written and at the same time sharp this story will leave thousands of thoughts in one’s head and will raise the consciousness in every reader" (Planet News, review). “A powerful dystopian fable, by the Ukrainian Jaroslav Melnik, which collides the animal question with the worst totalitarian constructions that humanity has been able to raise against itself: if the "lower race" is absolutely dehumanized, all moral questions vanish" (Libération). "Borrowing the theme of sub-men from H. G. Wells, Melnik mixes, as a knowledgeable DJ, philosophical reflection, post-historical essay, anticipation novel and denunciation of Nazism in a novel as chilling as it is astonishing." (L'Obs - Le Nouvel Observateur). “To be or to appear ... a human being" "Constructed skillfully, beautifully presented with a Gothic model that imbues the object with a chilling aura " "Beyond the noir novel and the philosophical message, an era outside of time - but not so distant when we get closer to the outcome - is a meditation on the idea we have of life, of what we want - or must - do with it, and courageous decisions to be made at the many crossroads of our existence. A lesson in modesty” (L'Internaute (Figaro website) "This novel of anticipation is to be put in all hands" "A total success! " (The Suricate Magazine)) "A book as disturbing as it is clever, one of which we will still spend time mentally traversing the dark twists and turns once the object is closed. Not to mention this final twist, a tremendous find, which alone gives a disturbing depth to this story of crazy inventiveness. " (Usbek & Rica Magazine)

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The Successor (Kadare) The Successor () is a 2003 novel by the Albanian writer and inaugural International Man Booker Prize winner Ismail Kadare. It is the second part of a diptych of which the first part is the novella "Agamemnon's Daughter". The diptych is ranked by many critics among the author's greatest works. Background. "Agamemnon's Daughter", the prequel to "The Successor", was written in 1985 and smuggled out of Albania before the collapse of the Hoxhaist regime, but it was published almost two decades later, after Kadare had already composed "The Successor" as its companion-piece. As opposed to the more personal "Agamemnon's Daughter", "The Successor" is much more grounded in actual history, presenting a fictional account of the events that may have led to the still-unexplained 1981 death of Mehmet Shehu, Albania's long-time Prime Minister during the Cold War and Enver Hoxha's most trusted ally and designated number two ever since the death of Stalin and the subsequent Soviet–Albanian split. Official Albanian government sources called his death a suicide, but his denouncement as "multiple foreign agent" and "traitor to the motherland" and the ensuing prosecution of the entire Shehu clan (starting with his influential wife, Fiqirete Shehu Sanxhaktari, and his son, Albanian writer Bashkim Shehu) has led to persistent popular rumors that Shehu had in fact been murdered on orders coming directly from either Enver Hoxha or his wife Nexhmije. Plot. The novel is divided into seven chapters, the first four of which ("A Death in December", "The Autopsy", "Fond Memories", and "The Fall") are narrated by an omniscient narrator, and the fifth ("The Guide") by a third person limited narrator (the dictator of the country, a thinly veiled portrait of Enver Hoxha). As the mystery behind the death – announced, in a characteristically simple Kadareian manner, in the novel's opening sentence ("The Designated Successor was found dead in his bedroom at dawn on December 14") – ostensibly closes to an inevitable resolution, the narration abruptly turns to first-person point of view, as each of the last two chapters is narrated by one of the novel's two most important characters: "The Architect" (who renovated the Successor's palace and was one of only few people who knew about its secret underground passage leading directly from the Guide's to the Successor's home), and in the "extraordinary [last] chapter", "The Successor", the already deceased title character. Essentially a political thriller and a "whodunit tragicomedy", "The Successor" gradually moves away from speculating about the identity of the likely murderer – after juggling with the possibilities of him being a Sigurimi agent sent by Hoxha, a rising political figure called Adrian Hasobeu striving to become the Number 2, the Architect who once felt offended by the Successor's jokes, or even the Successor's wife who slept much too soundly during the murder – choosing instead to focus on the brutal effects a close-knit dictatorship may have on everyone forced to live under it, no matter how safe he or she may seem in the eyes of the outward observers. Possibly analysing his own controversial dual role as both a privileged writer and an internal dissident under the Hoxha regime, Kadare uses the figure of the Architect to explore the problem of artistic integrity in such circumstances, and the events of "Agamemnon's Daughter" are here recounted once again – this time through the eyes of the female protagonist, Suzana – as further evidence that even the most intimate feelings, such as love, may fall victim to political intrigues and the demands of the state, in cases when the individual is continually sacrificed at a more fundamental, systematic level. Reception. The diptych "Agamemnon's Daughter"/"The Successor" is considered by Kadare's French publisher, Fayard's editor Claude Durand, "one of the finest and most accomplished of all Ismail Kadare's works to date". Characterizing it as "laceratingly direct" in its criticism of the totalitarian regime, in a longer overview of Kadare's works, James Wood describes the diptych as "surely one of the most devastating accounts ever written of the mental and spiritual contamination wreaked on the individual by the totalitarian state". Wood compares Kadare favourably to both Orwell and Kundera, considering him to be "a far deeper ironist than the first, and a better storyteller than the second". As an especially good example of Kadare's irony, he points out to one of the concluding passages of "The Successor's" third chapter, when the almost blind Guide, led by his wife, visits the Successor's renovated home for the first time and suddenly discovers a dimmer, a novelty in Albania at the time, the lavishness of which may be treated as a possible bourgeois trait by the paranoid leader: The same passage is excerpted by James Lasdun as representative of Kadare's power to chillingly portray fear and "the reptilian consciousness" of dictators. Lasdun considers "The Successor" a "gripping, fitfully brilliant" novel, which employs everything "from documentary realism to Kafkaesque fabulism" to depict a world bereaved of heroes, a universe where "everyone is stained, contaminated, implicated" – not excluding the author himself. Even though branding the translation "clunky", a review by "Publishers Weekly" believes that the novel reaffirms Kadare's place "with Orwell, Kafka, Kundera and Solzhenitsyn as a major chronicler of oppression". Lorraine Adams both cites and questions this in a "lukewarm review" for "The New York Times", which she concludes by reiterating the possibility of reading "The Successor" "as something of a coded commentary on Kadare's own life. Just as we long to know the cause of the Successor's death, so do we long to resolve Kadare's true place in Hoxha's Albania. The archive may yet be discovered that helps Kadare's part become clearer. Will we ever know?" Much like Lasdun's and albeit implicitly, Adams' review refers to a well-publicized denouncement of Kadare by the Romanian émigré poet Renata Dumitrascu, who, in the wake of the announcement of the Man Booker International Prize winner in 2005, scathingly described the Albanian author as "an astute chameleon, adroitly playing the rebel here and there to excite the naïve Westerners who were scouting for voices of dissent from the East". In a reply to Lorraine Adams, Kadare's English translator David Bellos refuted these allegations as "fabrications", pointing to the fact that the regime's file on Kadare has already been published and is readily available to the public. Fundamentally echoing Landus' judgment, Simon Caterson dispenses with this kind of black-and-white reasoning, writing that "even if Kadare was complicit in the Hoxha regime, and there is nothing in this remarkable novel to suggest he was not, it is quite possible that "The Successor" could not otherwise have been written. As it is, the book asks questions for which, to its credit, it can find no convenient answers." Leaving aside the nature of Kadare's political role, Murrough O'Brien calls "The Successor" a "strangely uplifting" novel, "despite the relentless tragedy it depicts, the tragedy of people yanked between fear and bewilderment. The final section, despite its sombreness, swings you up into the region where cruelty and pettiness are themselves left without air."

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New Era (novel) New Era () is a 1908 novel by Bigehuan zhuren (碧荷館主人). The novel, set in 1999, focuses on a world war between China and The West, in which China becomes the world superpower and a "yellow peril" (黃禍 "huánghuò") with one trillion residents. The country had political free speech, an active science and technology industry, and a parliamentary political system operating nationally and sub-nationally. It also had control of all former Chinese concessions as well as Mongolia, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang; the former were given to China circa 1939. The novel was inspired by "Xin Zhongguo weilai ji". David Wang wrote that it was "more polemical" than another work inspired by "Xin Zhongguo weilai ji", the 1910 novel "Xin Zhongguo". David Wang added that due to the Century of humiliation in which Europeans subjugated Chinese, to the readers the ending "must have been exhilarating". The novel has supernatural and scientific elements. David Wang stated that the novel is more similar to "Quell the Bandits" than "Xue Rengui zhengdong" ("The Eastern Expedition of Xue Rengui") since "New Era" uses highly intelligent scientists in the way "Quell the Bandits" uses supernatural characters. David Wang argued that for readers at the time the future setting was "the ultimate "machina"" in which China's geopolitical standing and power have drastically changed, although some elements seem anachronistic to a reader in the decade of the 2000s. Plot. David Wang stated that "In its epic scale the novel is a maritime version of the Mongol conquest of Europe." The novel's beginning highlights this new China and also discusses a civil war between majority ethnic Mongoloids and Caucasoids, supported by adjacent white European powers, in Hungary; they are deciding whether to support a white European calendar or a Chinese calendar; each one would orient Hungary towards a different society. David Der-wei Wang stated that "it is no coincidence" that Biheguan zhuren used Hungary, which had once been invaded by Huns, as the setting of a clash of civilizations. The novel's story further develops with actions taken by ethnic Chinese elsewhere, including the establishment of the Western Chinese Republic in the Western United States by Chinese immigrants, the involvement of an undersea ethnic Chinese country near Borneo, a revolt of ethnic Chinese in Australia, and the seizure of the Panama Canal by Chinese. In addition Egypt and Turkey block several Central and Eastern European countries from assisting Western Europe. The United States government allies with Western Europe due to the loss of the Panama Canal. A former Chinese navy general, Huang Zhisheng, who had retired after his proposed reform plans had been rejected by government officials, is called back into service to be the leader of the Chinese sea forces. The Chinese win after having battles in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Adriatic Sea. In a last attempt to stop the Chinese, the Europeans use a poisonous green gas (綠氣 "lǜqì"). In response Huang Zhisheng goes to 90-year old Liu Shengzu to get a special liquid that converts ocean water to combustible gases; an Italian man had tutored Liu Shengzu; he, who Huang Zhisheng had served under, used his scientific smarts to create that chemical. Huang Zhisheng destroys a European navy by using divers to spread the liquid, then firing electrical beams ("liti dianli deng" ) from a balloon to have the liquid ignited. David Wang compared this ending to that of the battle at Red Cliff of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

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Ang mga Anak Dalita Ang mga Anak Dalita ("[The] Children of the Poor") is a 1911 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Patricio Mariano. The 73-page novel was published in Manila by Limbagan at Aklatan Ni I.R. Morales (Printing Press And Library of I.R. Morales) during the American era in Philippine history (1898–1946). "Ang mga Anak Dalita" is a political novel that deals also with Filipino ideology, the socio-economic situation, the industrial upheaval, and the struggle of the oppressed Filipino working class in Manila during Mariano’s time. Description. Mariano wrote "Ang mga Anak Dalita" in poetic form. The theme of the novel is about how the poor in the Philippines become poorer by being exploited by capitalists. According to literary critic Soledad Reyes, there was a scene in the novel wherein Ata, the main female protagonist, narrates a story about how the Philippines (represented by the name "Mutya", meaning "pearl", "precious stone", or "charmstone") became the victim of Spain (represented by the name "Dulong", a type of small fish known as the "Gobiopterus lacustris" (lacustrine goby), which belongs to the family Gobiidae), and the United States (represented by the name "Limatik", meaning "leech"). Based on Philippine history, the Philippines was colonized by Spain from 1521 to 1898, and then by the United States from 1898 to 1946. Plot. The characters of the novel include Ata, Teta, Pedro, and a factory owner. Ata is a poor woman. Teta is Ata’s daughter. Pedro is Ata’s lover. The factory owner in the novel is the “avaricious” and “lustful" boss of Ata. The factory owner tried to rape Ata, but she was able to escape. During a conflict with the laborers, Ata’s daughter Teta saves the factory owner from being killed by the factory workers. In the end, Teta turns out to be the daughter of the factory owner. The theme of the novel is similar to Mariano’s other novel "Ang Tala sa Panghulo" ("The Bright Star at Panghulo").

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Berlin Without Jews Berlin Without Jews () is a 1925 dystopian novel by Arthur Landsberger. It is written from the point-of-view of two German families friendly to each other; the Oppenheims are Jewish, and the Rudenbergs are Lutherans. In the events of the book, a right-wing nationalist political party takes power and expels German Jews. The other factions of German politics and society stand by, doing nothing, thinking the Jews matter little. The expulsion has unfortunate consequences for Germany. German life is poorer both culturally and economically without the Jews, and the novel ends with the government sheepishly inviting the German Jews back and welcoming them as valued members of society. The novel was described as a "tragi-satire" by its author. It includes satirical jabs at the rhetoric and ideologies of the Weimar Republic. Background. Austrian author Hugo Bettauer wrote "The City Without Jews" in 1922, which was made into a film in 1924. It was quite similar to Landsberger's work and likely an inspiration; in Bettauer's book, it is Vienna which exiles its Jews, and similar to Landsberger, the work focuses not on the suffering of the exiled Jews, but rather the effects on Austrian Christians. Also similar is its somewhat comical bent to the consequences, such as the inability to find good coffee shops or cafes. Bettauer was shot on March 10, 1925, by an antisemitic extremist, and died shortly afterward. Plot and characters. The novel opens with the intrigues of Boris Pinski. Despite being a Bolshevik, he joins with and advises the nationalist parties, feeling that their victory would hasten a German communist revolution. He believes that taking an anti-Jewish tack would help them win the next elections. Pinski writes a publication which calls for the German Jews to demonstrate their patriotism and loyalty to Germany by pooling their fortunes together to pay the Treaty of Versailles reparations owed by Germany. Unsurprisingly, the Jewish leadership rejects such a proposal; this confirms pre-existing prejudices of the German Jews as somehow not loyal to their country. Backed by this, the nationalists win the election while riots occur throughout the country, with 200 homes looted and 160 Jews killed. The new Reichstag approves the exile of all Jews. Half-Jew/half-Germans are allowed to remain, but lose their right to vote and hold public offices. Benno Oppenheim gives a speech on behalf of the opposition "in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount" decrying the new policy. Some 97 prominent Jews older than 65 years - including Benno Oppenheim - refuse in a letter of protest to leave the country, and commit suicide, instead. The propaganda department attempts to make the expulsion of the Jews tolerable and fun with music, parades, colorful uniforms, movies, and revues as a distraction. Soon afterward, the nationalists begin to target the centrists as their next scapegoat. After some hesitation, a trade boycott is imposed against Germany, causing a shortage of raw materials. Strikes break out. Food is rationed. Tourism collapses. As Pinski had hoped, the Bolsheviks are strengthened and engage in street battles with supporters of the nationalists. The (unnamed) chancellor is forced to admit the disastrous economic situation before the Reichstag; the opposition calls for a reversal of the policy. The nationalist parties break apart, the government loses the confidence vote, and a new emergency government of centrists is created. The expulsion is reversed, with the Oppenheims returning home to the celebration of the residents of Berlin. Legacy. Landsberger's novels were reasonably well-read and popular in the 1920s, but faded from public view in the 1930s and 1940s as "Berlin Without Jews" had proven uncomfortably accurate - except that reality did not provide a happy ending in which the exiled German Jews returned. Landsberger himself committed suicide in 1933, six months after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor following the 1933 elections, and the novel was largely forgotten until a new printing was made in 1998.

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Now and Then (Samuel Warren novel)

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The Dark Abode The Dark Abode is a collage presentation of South Asian feminist novelist Sarojini Sahoo's novel and American poet and painter Ed Baker's 23 sketches, which deal with terrorism that people often face from micro- to macrosphere. Plot summary. The novel begins with questioning the mere physicality of the man-woman relationship but then transports the reader into the higher planes of platonic love. The central character of the novel is Kuki, a Hindu woman from India who falls (and then rises) in love with a Muslim artist from Pakistan. The unusualness of the socio-cultural background of these two characters is delicately portrayed by Sahoo in a sensitive and convincing manner. Readers become familiar with the two sets of roles that Kuki plays; that of a lover and that of a wife. Sahoo subtly balances these two roles and at the same time, highlights the superiority of a wife in a pragmatic world. But the novel is not merely a love story. Though love is a part of the novel, it deals with a much broader topic: the providence of a woman in India. At the same time, it also portrays a story of how a perverted man, over time, becomes a perfect man. It also delves into the relationship between the 'state' and the 'individual' and comes to the conclusion that 'the state' represents the moods and wishes of a ruler and hence, 'the state' actually becomes a form of 'an individual'. Additionally, it takes a broader look at terrorism and state-sponsored anarchism. About sketches. Baker's Uma is a collection of sketches of the Hindu goddess, also known for feminine power. The sketches have their genesis as images in a dream, according to Baker. Uma, to him, is symbolic of many things that give us pleasure in life. As to how these images are realised, the artist confesses he is just not sure. "I just watch and wait for something to happen...and something always does," he says. It is said in the Saimdarua Lahiri that Uma is the source of all power in the universe and because of her; Shiva gets all of his powers. She is often depicted as half of Shiva, the supreme god, and she also is a major symbol of female sexuality. Her name refers to her being born daughter of Himavan (Himalaya), lord of the mountains. Beautiful, gentle, powerful consort of Shiva, mother of Ganesha and Kartikeya). Along with Saraswati and Lakshmi, she encompasses their powers and exudes a tranquil, serene beauty and provides a calm within. Uma is a symbol of many noble traditional (Hindu) virtues: fertility, marital felicity, spousal devotion, asceticism and power. She refers to the symbol of early feminine power and energy. Known formally as goddess Uma, Lady of the Mountains, she shows us how to balance the many aspects of our lives. Beautiful and (benignly) powerful, she is also known as Shakti, Parvati (consort of Shiva), Ambika, Annapurna, Bhairavi, Candi, Gauri, Durga, Jagadmata (Mother of the World), Kali, Kanyakumari, Kumari, painter Mahadevi, and Shyama. About the author. Sarojini Sahoo is an Indian feminist and author. She usually writes her short stories and novels in Oriya and her critical essays in English. She has been enlisted among 25 exceptional women of India by 'Kindle' English magazine of Kolkata. . In addition to being a college professor, she is currently an Associate Editor at the English magazine Indian Age. Dr. Sahoo also has a blog 'Sense & Sensuality,' where she discusses her ideas about sexuality, spiritualism, literature, and feminism. She has published 24 books; four in English and 20 in Oriya. . About the painter. Ed Baker is active in many mediums of art from drawing to writing to sculpture. He describes himself as self-made and not belonging to any 'schools' in the mediums in which he works. Baker essentially began his artistic endeavours in earnest in 1998. The prolific author has published eight books and countless poems published in leading publications in the medium of poetry. Translations. The novel was first published in Oriya in 2005 from Time Pass Publication, Bhubaneswar under the title "Gambhiri Ghara" and in 2007, it was translated into Bengali by Dilwar Hossain and Morshed Shafiul Hossain as "Mithya Gerosthali" () and was published from Bangladesh by Anupam Prakashani, Dhaka. In 2008 it was published in English by Indian Age Communication, Vadodara, and was translated by Mahendra Kumar Dash. In 2010, Prameela K.P. translated it into Malayalam, and Chintha Publisher of Thiruvananthapuram published it with a title "Irunda Koodaram". In 2011, the Hindi translation of the novel was published under the banner of Rajpal & Sons, Delhi with title "Band Kamra" ().

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State of War (novel) State of War, also known as State of War: A Novel, is the first novel written in 1988 by American Book Award recipient and Filipino author Ninotchka Rosca. It was described as a political novel that recreated the diverse culture of the Philippines through the presentation of an allegorical Philippine history. Characters. The main characters of this work of fiction by Rosca are Eliza Hansen, Adrian Banyaga, Anna Villaverde, and Colonel Amor. The three youths – Hansen, Banyaga, and Villaverde – represented three “faces of Manila”. Hansen is a vendor of "special favors" catering to politicians. Banyaga is a son of a prominent and well-connected family. Villaverde was a dissident who had recently been tortured. The ancestry the three is a mixture of ethnic Filipino, Malaysian, Chinese and Caucasian origins. Hansen was also playing the role of "matchmaker" between Banyaga and Villaverde Colonel Amor is Villaverde's interrogator, the lover and admirer of Hansen, and the seeker of Banyaga's political connections. Plot. Hansen, Banyaga, and Villaverde went to an island known as the Island of K in the Philippines to participate in a festival. Villaverde got in touch with radicals planning to activate explosives during the festival in order to assassinate The Commander, a name used as an indirect reference to Ferdinand Marcos. The assassination attempt that would end Marcos's presidency and dictatorship failed. Author. Ninotchka Rosca (born in the Philippines in 1946) is a Filipina feminist, author, journalist and human rights activist. Ninotchka Rosca is described as, "one of the major players in the saga of Filipina American writers". During the political instability during Ferdinand Marcos's rule she was arrested and held at a detention center for six months. She then spent sometime in exile in America. Much of her work is taken from her experiences during her imprisonment. Her short stories have been included in several collections including, the 1986 Best 100 Short Stories in the U.S. compiled by Raymond Carver and the Missouri Review Anthology. Her 1993 book "Twice Blessed" won the American Book Award. Background. The Philippine festival referred to in Rosca's "State of War" have similarities with the yearly "Mardi Gras" held on Panay Island. However, the festival was used by Rosca as a literary instrument to present the "revolutionary theme" of the novel. Rosca's "State of War" was also a narrative description of the effects of colonialism to the Filipinos' national identity. State of war shows women continuing their struggle in years of colonization against generations of, "rape, violence, and oppresion." State of War is written with nostalgia for the pre-contact days of a strong female presence in Filipino society. Other reviews also reveal that Rosca uses an, "intricate interplay of discourses on sexuality and (post)colonialism." It also traced the ancestry of the principal characters during Spanish and American colonialism in the Philippines. The personal memories of the main characters was a recollection of a "state of war" in the Philippines during Marcos's regime that failed to become a true revolution. Reception. "State of War" was published to positive reviews. "Publishers Weekly" wrote: "One wishes Rosca had used less allegory and more realistic detail; often the unique situation in the Philippines is lost in her somewhat mannered style. Still, there is an erratic, Kafkaesque brilliance, an intensity that makes this first novel a powerful piece of literature." "The Philippine Daily Inquirer" wrote in 2020: "State of War” is Filipina fictionist Ninotchka Rosca’s masterpiece... It is essential reading for Filipinos."

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Deep Rivers Deep Rivers () is the third novel by Peruvian writer José María Arguedas. It was published by Losada in Buenos Aires in 1958, received the Peruvian National Culture Award (Premio Nacional de Cultura) in 1959, and was a finalist in the William Faulkner Foundation Ibo-American award (1963). Since then, critical interest in the work of Arguedas has grown, and the book has been translated into several languages. According to critics, this novel marked the beginning of the current neo-indigenista movement, which presented, for the first time, a reading of indigenous issues from a closer perspective. Most critics agree that this novel is one of Arguedas' masterpieces. The title of the work ('Uku Mayu' in Quechua) alludes to the depth of the Andean rivers, which rise in the top of the Andes. It also relates to the solid and ancestral roots of Andean culture, which, according to Arguedas, are the true national identity of Peru. Context. The last years of the 1950s were very fertile for Arguedas' literary production. The book appeared when Indigenismo was in full swing in Peru. Education Minister at the time, Luis E. Valcárcel, organized the Culture Museum, an institution that contributed decisively to indigenous studies. Moreover, with the publication of Deep Rivers, the growing reception to Arguedas' work began, both in Peru and throughout the continent. Composition. The genesis of the novel was the story 'Warma kuyay" (part of the collection of short stories entitled 'Water', published in 1935), one of whose characters is the child Ernesto. This Ernesto is unmistakably the same as the Deep Rivers character. A text of Arguedas which was published in 1948 in the form of autobiography (Las Moradas, vol. II, No. 4, Lima, April 1948, pp. 53–59), took shape as the second chapter of the novel under the title 'Los Viajes'. In 1950 Arguedas wrote the essay 'The novel and the problem of literary expression in Peru' (La novela y el problema de la expression literaria en el Peru), in which he announced the existence of the novel project. The push to complete the novel emerged years later in 1956, while conducting ethnographic fieldwork in the Mantaro Valley. He then worked hard to its completion. Some texts of ethnographic study were attached to the story, such as the etymological explanation of 'zumbayllu' or magical spinning top. Plot. The novel describes the maturation process of Ernesto, a 14-year-old who must confront the injustices of the adult world that he becomes a part of, and who is required to take sides. The story begins in Cuzco, where Ernesto and his father Gabriel arrive. Gabriel, an itinerant lawyer, is looking for a rich relative called 'El Viejo' (the old one), in order to ask for work and shelter. But he does not succeed. He then recommences his wanderings through many cities and villages of southern Peru. In Abancay, Ernesto is enrolled as a boarder at a religious school while his father continues his travels in search of work. Ernesto then has to live with the boarding students who are a microcosm of Peruvian society and where cruel and violent behaviour is the norm. Later, outside the boundaries of the school, a group of chicheras mutiny, demanding the distribution of salt, and a mass of Indian peasants enter the city to ask for a mass for the victims of epidemic typhus. This pushes Ernesto into a profound awareness: he must choose the values of liberation rather than economic security. This completes a phase of the learning process. The novel ends when Ernesto leaves Abancay and goes to a ranch owned by "El Viejo", situated in the valley of the Apurimac, awaiting the return of his father. Analysis. "With deep rivers Arguedas's work reached a wide continental distribution. This novel fully develops the lyrical potentialities that lay in Arguedas' prose from the beginning. Offering the story from the perspective of an introverted teenage character, to some extent autobiographical, this narrative of internal examination presents however, from its first line, a distressing reflection on reality, on the nature of the Andean world and its relations with westernized sectors. One of the merits of Deep Rivers is its achievement of a high degree of consistency between the two facets of the text. With regard to the revelation of the meaning of the Indian reality, Deep Rivers repeats certain dimensions of Yawar Fiesta, Arguedas's previous novel: its contextualization within the Andean, the emphasis on the opposition between such a universe and the coastal one, the assertion of power and the Quechua people of the Andean culture, etc. The chapters recounting the revolt of the chicheras and settlers insist on showing that hidden capacity. Arguedas liked to point out that the action of the settlers, although treated in the novel as magical motivations, foreshadowed the peasant uprisings that occurred in reality a few years later. The subjective side of Deep Rivers is focused on the efforts of the protagonist to understand the world around him, and to place himself within it as a living whole. Such a project is in extreme conflict: on one hand, on the level of subjectivity, a mythical vision of indigenous descent affirming the unity of the universe and the sharing of all items in a harmonious destiny works; on the other hand, contrary to the above, the experience of immediate reality highlights the deep division in the world and its history of tears and strife, stories that force the protagonist to choose in favor of one side of reality and fight against the other. His ideal of integration, a most passionate one, as it originates in his fragmented interiority, is doomed to failure. To participate in the world is not to live in harmony; it is exactly the opposite, to internalize the conflicts of reality. This is the hard lesson that Deep Rivers chronicles. On the other hand, in order to capture the double movement of convergence and dispersion, or unity and disharmony, this novel builds a dense and beautiful symbolic system that creatively retells certain indigenous myths and gives them fresh life. In this respect the novel functions as a dazzling lyrical operation. Deep Rivers is not the most important work of Arguedas; it is however, without a doubt, the most beautiful and perfect." Style and Narrative Technique. Mario Vargas Llosa, who along with Carlos Eduardo Zavaleta was the first to develop the "modern novel" in Peru, recognizes that Arguedas, although not developing modern techniques in his narratives, is nevertheless much more modern than other writers who respond to the characteristic nineteenth century classical model, that of the "traditional novel", as in the case of Ciro Alegría. Vargas Llosa says of it: "With the stories Agua (Water) and Los rios profundos (Deep Rivers), after the progress he had made Yawar Fiesta, Arguedas had perfected his style as much as his technical resources, which, without spectacular innovations or experimental daring, still reached full functionality in this novel. [These technical recources] provide the persuasive power without which no fiction can come alive before the reader nor pass the test of time." Vargas Llosa recognizes the emotional impact reading Deep Rivers left him, which unambiguously qualifies it as a masterpiece. Vargas Llosa also highlights Arguedas mastery of the Spanish language in this novel to reach a style of great artistic effectiveness. It is a functional and flexible Spanish, which brings to light the different shades of a plurality of issues, people and peculiarities of the world exposed in the work. Arguedas, a bilingual writer, succeeds in "quechuization" of Spanish: what some characters say in Quechua is translated to Spanish, sometimes including those speeches in italics in the original language. This does not happen often, but as often as needed to make the reader see that these are two cultures with two different languages. The zumbayllu. The zumbayllu or spinning top is the quintessential magical element of the novel. "The ball (of the top) was made of a store-bought coconut, from those tiny grey coconuts that come in cans; the spike was large and thin. Four round holes, like eyes, emanated from the sphere." These holes produce the typical buzzing sound when spun, which give the object its name. There is also a more powerful type of zumbayllu made from a deformed object but without being round (winku) and with the quality of sorcery (layka). For Ernesto, the zumbayllu is the ideal instrument for capturing the interplay between objects. As such, its functions are varied, but it is first used to send messages to distant places. Ernesto believes that his voice can reach the ears of his absent father by chanting the zumbayllu. It is also a pacifying object, a symbol of restoring order, as in the episode where Ernesto gives his zumbayllu to Anauco. But it is also a purifying element of negative spaces, and it is under that belief that Ernesto buries his zumbayllu in the backyard of the toilets, in the same place where older inmates sexually abused a mentally disabled woman. The zumbayllu purifies the land and flowers start to sprout, which Ernesto then decides to place in the woman's tomb.

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Satanas sa Lupa Satanas sa Lupa (“Satan on Earth”), subtitled “"nobelang pangkasalukuyan"” (“Present-day Novel”), is a 1970 Tagalog-language novel by Filipino author and scriptwriter Celso Al. Carunungan, one of the “titans of Philippine literature”. The novel criticizes the Philippine government and society during the early part of the 1970s, a reason why the author had been included among the group known as "Class 1081", Filipinos imprisoned when Martial Law was declared by Ferdinand Marcos in 1972. Apart from being one of the political novels in the Philippines from 1967 to 1972 that "represented a clamor for change in society" (Filipino: "kinatawan ng paghingi ng pagbabago sa lipunan"), "Satanas sa Lupa" was one of the novels in the Philippines that incorporated romanticism in its plot using the "love triangle" (Filipino: "tatsulukan ng pag-ibig") genre, a genre that began in the Philippines in 1906 through another novel entitled "Juan Masili" by another Filipino author named Patricio Mariano. The love triangle in "Satanas sa Lupa" is between the characters Benigno Talavera, Conrado, and Chona. Description. According to Ruby Gamboa-Alcantara in her ""Romantisismo, Estilong Pilipino" Itinatak sa Nobelang Tagalog" ("Romanticism, Filipino Style" Stamped on the Tagalog Novel), the character Benigno Talavera was the representative of Philippine politics in "Satanas sa Lupa". Talavera was a "formerly good citizen" who was influenced by three other Congressmen (Filipino: "Konggresista") Carpio, David, and Balbino. The three were cheating each other for the sake of climbing up the ladder of power and for gaining wealth. In "Satanas sa Lupa", the reign of greed was ended by the persecution of Senator Morales, the death of Talavera, and the burning of evidence used to blackmail Talavera. The evidence was burned by Talavera's wife, Virginia. The other circumstances presented in "Satanas sa Lupa" were the drug addiction of Ismael, the son of Talavera; the pregnancy out of wedlock and motherhood as a single woman by Esther, the daughter of Talavera; the love affair between Contrado and Chona; and the elopement of Conrado and Chona (Conrado was supposed to become a priest). According to Gamboa-Alcantara, there is an unrealistic circumstance in "Satanas sa Lupa", which is the excessive portrayal of Virginia, the wife of Talavera, as the martyred spouse and mother, due to the use of Philippine-style romanticism.

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Savushun Savušun (also spelled Savushun, ) is a 1969 Persian novel by Iranian female writer Simin Daneshvar. It is the first novel in Persian written by a female author. The story is about the life of a landowning family in Shiraz faced to the occupation of Iran during World War II. "Savušun" has sold over five hundred thousand copies in Iran. "Savušun" is "groundbreaking" and highly acclaimed work in contemporary Persian literature, with both literary and popular success within and outside Iran. The novel has been translated to English and 16 other languages. When writing about the novel's importance, critic Kaveh Bissari describing an exact translation by M.R. Ghanoonparvar in 1990 and the version "A Persian Requiem" by Roxane Zand in 1991. Daneshvar uses folklore and myth in "Savušun." Linguistically, "savušun" is a corruption of "Siyâvašun", which refers to the traditional mourning for Siyâvaš, a hero in the "Šâhnâme".

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Senja di Jakarta Senja di Jakarta () is an Indonesian novel written by Mochtar Lubis and first published in English by Hutchinson & Co. in 1963, with a translation by Claire Holt. It was later published in Indonesian in 1970. Writing. "Senja di Jakarta" was written while Mochtar Lubis was under house arrest, as ordered by the Sukarno government. The manuscript was originally entitled "Yang Terinjak dan Melawan" (), but the title was changed during translation. Plot. Raden Kaslan, a member of the Indonesia Party, is told by the party leader Husin Limbara to raise funds for the next election. To do so, Kaslan creates fake companies to handle licensing the import of goods with his second wife Fatma, son Suryono and himself as directors. Through this fraud, they raise much money for themselves and the party. At his father's urging, Suryono quits his job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and soon becomes rich. He also becomes very promiscuous, having sex with high-class prostitutes, married women, and his own stepmother. Meanwhile, honest government workers like Idrus are unable to compete. Idrus receives little compensation, and his materialistic wife Dahlia is having an affair with Suryono. The "wong cilik", including prostitute Neneng, coachman Pak Idjo, and garbagemen Saimun and Itam live in hunger, ignored by the upper class. Despite the inequality, academics and cultural observers do nothing but discuss the social woes; they never take action. Eventually, opposition newspapers uncover the corruption and fake companies used by the Indonesia Party. This causes the president to disband the cabinet and some members of the Indonesia Party to join the opposition. Raden Kaslan is arrested, while Suryono and Fatma get into a car accident while trying to escape; Suryono dies of his wounds. Despite the fall of the Indonesia Party, the poor still suffer. Themes. "Senja di Jakarta" has been seen as drawing a parallel of 1950s Indonesia, under Sukarno's reign. The corruption, immorality, and abuse of power of the ruling class caused poverty within the general populace. These same themes are seen throughout the novel. Release and reception. Due to Lubis' imprisonment, "Senja di Jakarta" was originally published by Hutchinson & Co. as "Twilight in Jakarta" in 1963. From the English version, it was translated into Dutch as "Schemer over Djakarta" by P.H. Fruithof. In 1964, it was released in Malay as "Sendja di Djakarta". It was also translated into Italian, Spanish, and Korean prior to being released in Indonesian in 1970. Since then it has also been translated into Japanese. Due to it originally being published in English, "Senja di Jakarta" has been described as Mochtar Lubis' best known work in the Western world. Critical reception was warm. A. Teeuw considered it one of Mochtar Lubis' finer works, and Ajip Rosidi later commented that the world press received it well. However, others such as M. Balfas described "Senja di Jakarta" as "[showing] that Mochtar Lubis' place is more in the world of newspapers and magazines than in that of literature proper." The novel was adapted for film by Nico Pelamonia as "Sendja di Djakarta" in 1967.

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A Case of Exploding Mangoes A Case of Exploding Mangoes (2008) is a comic novel by the Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif based on the 1988 plane crash that killed General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, former president of Pakistan. The book received generally positive reviews from critics. It won the Commonwealth Foundation's Best First Book prize in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Plot summary. The central theme of the book is a fictitious story behind the real-life plane crash which killed General Zia, president of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, about which there are many conspiracy theories. After witnessing a tank parade in Bahawalpur, Pakistan on August 17, 1988, Zia leaves the small Punjabi town in the C-130 Hercules aircraft designated "Pak One," along with several of his senior army officials, the US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel, and some crates of mangoes. Shortly after a smooth takeoff, the control tower loses contact with the aircraft. Witnesses who saw the plane in the air later claim it was flying erratically, before nosediving and exploding on impact, killing all 31 on board. Zia had ruled Pakistan for 11 years prior to his death. Lazy, irreverent Ali Shigri narrates the story. Ali's father, Col. Quli Shigri, has recently died in what was called a suicide, but Ali discovers that his father was killed by a rogue ISI officer, Major Kiyani, under Zia's orders. The story takes place in the months before the plane crash, jumping back and forth between Ali's revenge plans and his third-person observations of Zia's life. Ali attends the Pakistani Air Force Academy with his fellow cadets and their instructors. His best friend is Cadet "Baby O" Obaid, his roommate and lover. Interspersed between pieces of Ali's narrative are glimpses into the lives of other key Pakistani and American political players: Chief of Pakistani Intelligence General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, American ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel, and President Zia ul-Haq himself. The book also touches on the perspectives of some of Zia's closest confidants. Over the course of the book, Zia grows ever more suspicious of those in his inner circle until he is driven utterly mad by his own paranoia. Every morning, he asks his chief of security, "Who's trying to kill me?" A devout Muslim, he attends daily prayers, where he weeps loudly (an occurrence to which the other worshippers have become accustomed). He fights with his wife and takes every opportunity to leer at non-Muslim cleavage. In one subplot, General Zia sentences Zainab, a blind woman, to death by stoning for being the victim of a gang rape. According to Zia’s sharia court, she has committed adultery. For condemning her, Zainab calls down a curse upon Zia. The curse is picked up by a sugar-obsessed crow. In another subplot, Arnold Raphel holds a Fourth of July party in Islamabad. A young, bearded Saudi known as "OBL" attends. OBL works for Laden and Co. Constructions, making this a clear reference to, and a cameo by, Osama bin Laden. Ali's revenge plot consists of stabbing Zia in the eye with his under-officer sword, a move he practices daily in secret. But Baby O concocts a new plot to kill Zia by crashing a plane kamikaze-style down on him. He even goes so far as to steal a plane for the job, but in doing so, he accidentally lands Ali in prison at Lahore Fort, a torture center. While there, Ali listens to the screams of his tortured fellow prisoners and talks via a hole in the wall with the "Secretary General" who has been in solitary confinement there for nine years. Ali eventually learns that his own father is the one responsible for turning Lahore Fort into a torture center ("Nice work, Dad," he responds). Meanwhile, Major Kiyani appears on the scene, intending to torture Ali. A sudden change in ISI command takes place, and Ali is freed in time to avoid torture. Upon his arrival back at the Pakistani Air Force Academy, he learns that he has been chosen as part of the squad that will perform a silent drill salute for Zia. Ali will finally have his opportunity, and he decides to stake his revenge plot on the use of snake venom from Uncle Starchy (launderer for PAF Academy), injected into Zia's hand via Ali's sword. After the silent drill salute, Zia boards the doomed Pak One. The novel does not confirm whether or not Ali is successful in his attempt to assassinate General Zia. Rather, several alternatives are offered: the curse-carrying crow that crashed into the plane's engines while pursuing the mangoes, an explosive planted in the mangoes by the All Pakistan Sweepers Union in revenge for the death of their general-secretary at the hands of Major Kiyani, or one of Zia's confidants, each with their own secrets and motivations. The book even speculates that it could be the work of the CIA. Themes. Corruption. General Akhtar Abdul Rehman is the chief of ISI under General Zia. He controlled the tremendously great ISI and falls resentfully to second in importance, command, and control to General Zia ul-Haq. The ISI with its government agent systems and the measure of financing makes General Akhtar an exceptionally well-off and dangerous man. As ISI is in charge of piping the assets and weapons to the Afghan mujahideen, the book indicates that every one of these assets are not given to the mujahideen. The millions are occupied somewhere else, to people with great influence, General Akhtar chief among them. Global politics. The book explores the seemingly self-contradictory nature of American policy in the Middle East during this time. Much time is spent discussing the joint US-Pakistan effort to support Afghan mujahideen guerilla fighters against Soviet forces in the 1980s. Hanif writes, "Would-be supporters of the jihad against the Soviets were sent cards carrying a picture of a dead Afghan child (caption: "Better dead than red")." Readers are reminded that the US enthusiastically collaborated with General Zia to finance, train, and supply the Afghan mujahideen in their insurgency. It was Zia who permitted the shipment of American arms and billions of American dollars to the rebels, and who allowed the border regions of Pakistan to be used as their haven and training base. Hanif highlights the irony in America wanting to purge the world of one type of authoritarianism by cultivating another. By propping up an unhinged dictator like Zia and conspiring with violent radicals, Hanif believes that the U.S. demonstrates that it will manipulate any weaker actor it can into being a pawn in their foreign policy strategy. Islamism. Throughout the book, Zia remains convinced he is guided by Allah and feels he is receiving ominous messages straight out of the Quran predicting his demise. During his presidency Zia was credited for the Islamization of Pakistan. He was committed to enforcing his interpretation of "Nizam-e-Mustafa" ("Rule of the prophet" Muhammad), i.e. to establish an Islamic state and enforce sharia law. Hanif depicts this in a negative light to expose the hypocrisies he believes are present in political Islam. Reception. "The Guardian" described the novel as "woven in language as explosive as the mangoes themselves, is wickedly cynical and reveals layers of outrageous – and plausible – corruption." "The New York Times", in a review, called the novel "eerie timeliness". "The Washington Post" concluded its review by attesting that "Hanif has his own story to tell, one that defies expectations at every turn."

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Gagamba Gagamba (meaning “spider”), subtitled The Spider Man, is a novel by award-winning and most widely translated Filipino author F. Sionil José. The novel is about a Filipino male cripple nicknamed “Gagamba”, a vendor of sweepstakes tickets in Ermita, Manila. After being buried in the wreckage, the seller survives an earthquake, together with two other fortunate characters, that occurred in the Philippines in the middle of July 1990. The novel simultaneously raised a “fundamental question” about the meaning of life and offers one “rational answer”. Description. The whole day, the cripple Gagamba whose real name is Tranquilino Penoy sells sweepstakes at the entrance to the Ermita restaurant called Camarin. The eating-place became well-known because it was frequented by the so-called “beautiful people” that Gagamba sees daily. The “beautiful people” includes the “big men” who are politicians, journalists, generals, landlords, and “handsome call-girls”. During the July 1990 earthquake, all the dining “beautiful people” at the Camarin were killed and entombed. The only survivors from the Camarin were Gagamba and two other persons.

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Anino ng Kahapon Anino ng Kahapon (literally "Shadow of Yesterday"; figuratively "Shadow of the Past") is a 1907 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Francisco Laksamana. The 294-page novel was published in Manila by Santiago L. Abillar and SP during the first few years of American period in Philippine history. The 1907 version was illustrated by P Imperial. The novel was republished by the Ateneo de Manila University Press in 2002. According to the Ateneo de Manila University Press, the novel was written by Laksamana to help provide the readers with a "nostalgic recollection of the period of mournful Filipinoness". According to literary critic Epifanio San Juan, Jr. — apart from being a historical and political novel — "Anino ng Kahapon" was one of the romance novels and novels about heroic Philippine characters produced by Filipino authors from 1900 to contemporary times. Description. According to literary critic Soledad Reyes, "Anino ng Kahapon" is one of the few pro-American novels written during the American era (1898–1946) in the Philippines. The antagonists in the novel are Spanish authorities and their Filipino collaborators. The novel provides insight about the lifestyle of the Filipino people living in "typical small towns" located in Luzon at the time. Dedicated to the Filipino youth, "Anino ng Kahapon" is the first and only novel written by Laksamana about Philippine society during his lifetime. Laksama lived from 1877 to 1966. According to the National Library of the Philippines, "Anino ng Kahapon" was reviewed and was a master's degree thesis subject written by Pilar Pili de Guzman, entitled "Isang pagsusuri sa nobelang "Anino ng Kahapon" ni Francisco Lacsamana" ("A Review of the novel "Shadow of the Past" by Francisco Laksamana") in 1983 at the Araullo Lyceum, Cabanatuan City. Plot. The setting of the novel was during the final years of Spanish colonialism. The main characters of the novel are Modesto Magsikap and Elisea Liwayway. Magsikap is a vigilante who kills two suitors of Liwayway, his girlfriend. Magsikap’s first crime was the killing of Sergeant Cruz, the first suitor of Liwayway. Magsikap was imprisoned for the homicide. A group of bandits invaded the town where Magsikap was imprisoned, including the jail where Magsikap was confined. Magsikap returned to his own hometown after learning about the death of his father. There Magsikap murders Lt. Rosca, the second suitor of Liwayway. Magsikap’s two brothers were put in jail. To escape his pursuers and the Spanish authorities, Magsikap flees to the United States. From the United States, Magsikap continued communicating with Liwayway through letters. After five years, Magsikap returns to the Philippines. After his trip, Modesto became convinced of the "benevolent presence" of the United States in the Philippines.

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Madaling Araw Madaling Araw ("Dawn") is a 1909 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Iñigo Ed. Regalado. The 368-page novel was published in Manila, Philippines by the Aklatang J. Martinez (J. Martinez Library) during the American period in Philippine history (1899-1946). "Madaling Araw" won for Regalado a "Panitikan Series" (Literature Series) Philippine National Book Award. The novel is both a romance novel and a political novel. Characters. From Juan Galit, the other characters in the novel were Kabesang Leon (also known as Kapitan Leon, meaning Captain Leon, literally "Captain Lion", "Lion, the Head", or "Lion, the Leader"), Mauro, Luisa, Daniel, Nieves, and Pendoy. Mauro is a painter and a poet. Mauro is in love with Luisa, however Luisa’s parents has a dislike for Mauro. Daniel, on the other hand, is in love with Nieves. Nieves is the daughter of a wealthy father. Pendoy is a character that was obsessed with Luisa and Nieves, thus wanted to ruin the relationships between Mauro and Luisa, and between Daniel and Nieves. Pendoy, apart from the parents of Luisa and Nieves, became one of the obstacles affecting the relationships in the story. Description. Madaling Araw was written by Regalado when he 18 years old. According to literary critic Soledad Reyes, "Madaling Araw" was a complex and expansive novel that tackled issues that were personal to the author, as well as socio-political topics. In "Madaling Araw", Regalado utilized the use of meanings or definitions to suppress the ills of Philippine society. Regalado used Juan Galit as a tool for this technique of usage of meanings. Beyond the romantic theme, Madaling Araw embarked upon the topics of poverty and other socio-economic conditions in the Philippines. Juan Galit (the name literally means "John [the] Angry") became the representation of the avenger for the poor and bringer of justice. The poor had been exploited by Kabesang Leon, by an uncle of Mauro, and by other foreign capitalists residing in the country. At the end of "Madaling Araw", Galit is seen as an advocate of bloodshed and a preacher of anarchy, emphasizing to the Filipino people that bloodshed is important in the struggle for justice, because it was the only way for society to be able to cleanse and then reestablish itself. This also emphasized that anarchy was a tool that can overthrow the ills of society. Galit’s assassination of Kabesang Leon symbolized the eradication of Filipinos who collaborated with the Americans, one of the perceived causes of the suffering of the poor in the Philippines. Kabesang Leon was the personification of evil that represented the Filipino collaborators who tried to subjugate the lower class in Philippine society.

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None to Accompany Me None to Accompany Me is a 1994 novel by South African Nobel Winner Nadine Gordimer. The novel follows the motifs and plot framework of a Bildungsroman, exploring the development of the main character, Vera Stark. The novel is set during the early 1990s in South Africa after the release of Nelson Mandela. The novel focuses on Stark shedding personal ties to find her "true self" in a political cause: fighting apartheid as a civil rights lawyer. Her decisions also effect, her friends, a Black African family who had lived in political exile: Sibongile and Didymus Maqoma. The first printing of the novel included 60,000 copies. Style. La Times Reviewer Richard Eder focused on the novel's political novel features, describing the novel as having hints of ""Animal Farm" foreboding". The novel uses the characters for exposition to create commentary on the new political situation of South Africa. Critical reception. Reviews of the novel were mixed. "New York Times Books" reviewer Michiko Kakutani wrote a lukewarm review, describing the novel as successfully profiling Grodimer's "psychological insight" while "the attempt in these pages to render a more realistic post-apartheid South Africa frequently feels pat and contrived." (emphasis original) "Publisher's Weekly" was generally positive, describing the novel as "occasionally overdetermined by too many parallels and patterns, Gordimer's novel is powerfully complex and startling in its insights." "The LA Times" review focuses on the effective impact of the novel as an exploration of Vera's development in a new post-apartheid political environment: ""No One to Accompany Me," alludes both to the waning of all white hegemonies, even that of heroic idealism, and the waning of old age. Gordimer's novel is prophetic, and it has the very still quality of what is already passing."

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The Rosales Saga The Rosales Saga, also known as the Rosales Novels, is a series of five historical and political novels written by Filipino National Artist F. Sionil José. Chronologically, it is composed of five interconnected novels, namely "Po-on" (written in 1984), "Tree" (written in 1978), "My Brother, My Executioner" (written in 1973), "The Pretenders" (written in 1962), and "Mass" (written in 1973). The Rosales Saga traced the five generations of two families, namely the Samsons (poor farmers) and the Asperri (wealthy mestizos) through Spanish and American periods in the history of the Philippines until the period after Philippine Independence. José begun writing the series in 1962 and completed it in 1984. General description. All of José’s five novels are in set in Rosales, Pangasinan in Luzon, Philippines. José uses a variation of styles for the novels. José also focuses on different families with different social statuses. The object that connects and binds these families is the “giant Balete tree" located at the plaza of Rosales town. Among the common themes in the Rosales Novels are the intimate relationships and marriages between cousins, the father figure who is beaten up by the political and social structures, vengeful and aggressive attacks on persons who symbolize the repression and subjugation, the love-hate relationship between the characters and the town of Rosales, as well as its barrios such as Cabugawan, Carmay and Sipnget. Narrative sequence. Po-on. The first book in the Rosales series, "Po-on", focuses on the Samson family. The novel is set during the Philippine–American War when revolution and nationalism were presented as the solution to the social and political problems in the Philippines. Tree. The second novel,"Tree", pursues the life of the unnamed grandson of Don Jacinto, the overseer of the Asperris and protector of the Samsons in "Po-on". The unnamed narrator witnesses the adversity of the Filipino peasants under the "encomienda" system during the Spanish colonial regime, as well as the resulting uprisings created by the peasants. However, the nameless story-teller is unable to free himself from his own position that carries cultural and economic benefits. The succeeding three books after "Tree" reinforce the existing strain between Philippine colonial heritage and bona fide patriotism. My Brother, My Executioner. The third novel, "My Brother, My Executioner", concentrates on the life of Luis Asperri and his half-brother Victor during the 1950s, a time that was plagued with the Hukbalahap rebellion. Luis Asperri is the illegitimate son of Don Vicente Asperri. Don Asperri takes Luis Asperri as an heir due to the absence of a legitimate son by the former. Luis abandons his peasant roots in order to embrace the status of a landowner. His half-brother Victor warns Luis that if the peasantry does not receive economic justice, the Hukbalahap insurgents would annihilate the elite class. In the end, Luis expects his demise at the hands of the Hukbalahap rebels. The Pretenders. The fourth novel, "The Pretenders (novel)", recalls the life of Antonio “Tony” Samson, the son of Victor, the half-brother of Luis Asperri in "My Brother, My Executioner" (Victor was imprisoned for life for murdering Luis Asperri). Antonio Samson obtains a PhD degree from Harvard University in the United States. By marrying a rich Filipina mestiza, Antonio Samson becomes an Ilustrado and works for his father-in-law. As a result, Antonio Samson is unable to marry his true love and cousin, Emy, with whom he sired an illegitimate son. Feeling undeserving of Emy and his son because of his denunciation of his peasant origins, Antonio Samson commits suicide. Mass. In the fifth and last Rosales Novel, "Mass", the timeline jumps forward into the 1970s, to narrate the life of Pepe Samson, the illegitimate son of Antonio Samson and his cousin Emy. Pepe Samson moves to Manila to attend college. He becomes a member of a revolutionary group called The Brotherhood. The novel ends with a scene with Pepe leaving Manila to adhere to the cause of the mountain guerrillas. Connection with "Viajero". In José’s separate novel "Viajero", which is not a part of the Rosales Saga series, Pepe Samson reappears as a full-fledged insurgent, while some other Rosales Novels characters also resurface.

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The Currency of Mount Serenity The Currency of Mount Serenity (Arabic: مال جبال السكينة) is a political economic novel by Abdullah Al-Salloum. The novel (Subtitled: "The monetary system: from favor to post-tar-inar eras -" Arabic: النظام المالي بين حقبتي الامتنان وما بعد الزفتينار) (deposit: "0988-2017 Kuwait National Library") interprets – in a virtual world – the historic development eras of the real monetary system. The title was ranked as best-seller on Jamalon; middle-east's largest online books retailer.

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Inger! Inger! (full title, "Inger! A Modern-Day Viking Discovers America"), is a novel by American writer James Sites. It was released in 2006 by the Jesse Stuart Foundation. Plot. The story is a first-person account of the life of a writer, Sites, and his wife Inger, the heroine of this book. Inger Krogh is a Norwegian exchange student coming to America after World War II, and this account begins when James Sites (a merchant mariner for the United States at the time) first meets her at sea following a shipwreck. The story touches on many political subjects, as Sites and his wife worked for and around many senior government officials in the United States during his lifetime.

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Babouk Babouk is a political-themed novel by Guy Endore, a fictionalized account of the Haitian Revolution told through the eyes of its titular slave. Though virtually unknown today, "Babouk" has gained some notoriety in academic circles through its linking of the slave trade with capitalism, and one professor has suggested that it would make a valuable addition to post-colonial literary discourse. A committed leftist and opponent of racism, Endore spent many months in Haiti researching the story that would become "Babouk", and much of his findings make their way into the text, either in the form of epigraphs or explicitly noted in the text itself. "Babouk" is also notable for the digressions the narrator makes from the main narrative, to expound his political sympathies. Background. Endore, a popular writer and staunch socialist, had in 1933 published his book "The Werewolf of Paris", which became a financial success. Hoping to profit on his newfound bankability, he was contracted by Simon & Schuster to write another novel that would be in the same mystery vein. Endore, who spoke French, decided to write a romance set against the backdrop of the Haitian Revolution, and went to Haiti to conduct research on the slave trade. Horrified by what he learned, he became particularly interested in the story of a rebellious slave named Dutty Boukman, who many consider to be the catalyst behind the Haitian slave rebellion. Endore created a fictionalized version named Babouk, but he also used his story to try to tell an anti-capitalist parable that borrowed much of its philosophy from Karl Marx. The resulting manuscript was dubbed by the publishing house of Simon and Schuster to be, "a powerful, moving piece of work. It won't sell because it's just too horrible." The book was not successful, and it languished in obscurity until it was chosen by the leftist journal Monthly Review to be published as part of its "Voices of Resistance" series. The republished novel included a foreword by writer Jamaica Kincaid and an afterword by historians David Barry Gaspar and Michel-Rolph Trouillot. It was published in 1991 by Monthly Review Press. Plot summary. Babouk is a slave renowned by many tribes for his excellent storytelling abilities. He is captured by the French and taken to Saint Domingue to work on the sugar cane fields. Unaware of the reasons for his capture and hoping to be reunited with his lost love Niati, Babouk escapes his slave compound and wanders into the forest, only to meet some indigenous Americans. He is soon captured by a group of runaway slaves who had agreed to turn in other runaways on the condition that they are allowed their freedom and returned to the compound, where his ear is cut off. Such a traumatic experience forces him to remain absolutely silent for several years, doing his labor without complaint but also without much energy. He eventually can maintain his silence no longer, and he re-establishes himself as a great storyteller. Unhappy with the way the slave masters treat him (although they claim otherwise), Babouk becomes the figurehead for a group of slaves that intend to revolt against their masters. Babouk and his group are initially successful in their endeavors, but are eventually held back by the might of the French military. Babouk's arm is severed after he tries to stop a cannon from firing by sticking his hand into it; he is then beheaded and his head is put on a pike as a warning to other slaves who might try to draw inspiration from Babouk. The novel ends with an impassioned statement from Endore that warns of the inevitability of a race war as the result of the white man's transgressions. Major themes. "Babouk" explicitly highlights the supposed relationship between the slave trade and capitalism. Endore often removes himself from the principal narrative involving Babouk in order to talk about certain historical accounts he researched for the book itself, and he liberally passes severe judgment over those who were either involved in the slave trade or, more controversially, those whom he supposed passively continued its existence by not questioning the capitalist system. Endore also makes the point of comparing racist practices of the eighteenth century with contemporary ones, and rejects the notion that men are treated equally in the United States, even if that is what the Constitution claims. "Babouk"'s narrative voice is also heavily infused with irony, often taking the side of the slave masters or pro-slavery ideologues in an effort to further highlight what he sees as the absurdity of their position. He also openly mocks the production of what he believes to be useless objects to project status, such as jewelry. Critical reception. The handful of critics who reviewed "Babouk" gave it lukewarm reviews at the time of its 1934 release, recoiling at its brazenness and unflattering portrayal of whites. even from sources normally sympathetic to the anti-slavery part of his message. Generally, book critics agreed that Babouk's story had "epic possibilities" that did not reach fruition. The "New Republic" wrote, "'Babouk' is a horrible and an unforgettable book, but it somehow misses being a great, tragic or memorable one." "The Nation" declared that "The book is full...of interesting facts, observations, and descriptions. But...the denunciation of capitalism as slavery...is bad writing, almost fake poetry." Paul Allen authored the harshest review when he rejected the linkage of the voluntary exchange of capitalism and the forced labor of slavery, and wrote: "the heavy irony and the strident shrieking about the brotherhood of man culminating, on the last two pages of the book, in gibberish and exclamation points, practically ruins the book as either literature or propaganda." A review in the NAACP house organ "The Crisis" lauded "Babouk", stating "Here is a book that should be in the bookcase of every Negro family...speaking through Babouk, and seeing through the slaves' eyes, the author punctures all the cruelty, greed, pomp and vainglory of whites with deadly rapier thrusts". Recent evaluations of the book have been more favorable, and have brought the once-obscure book to wider attention. In 1991, it was reprinted with a foreword by renowned Caribbean-American author Jamaica Kincaid, and has received scholarly treatment in anthologies and literary criticism.

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The Porcupine The Porcupine is a short novel by Julian Barnes originally published in 1992. Before its British release date the book was first published earlier that year in Bulgarian, with the title "Бодливо свинче" (Bodlivo Svinche) by Obsidian of Sofia. Synopsis. Set in a post-communist fictional country, likely based on Bulgaria, the novel concerns the trial of Stoyo Petkanov, a character judged to be loosely based on Todor Zhivkov, the former communist leader of Bulgaria. As the newly appointed Prosecutor General attempts to ensnare the former dictator with his own totalitarian laws, Petkanov springs a few unwelcome surprises on the court by conducting a formidable defense. "The Times" described the book as 'Superbly humane in its moral concerns...an excellent novel'.

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Red Dust (novel) Red Dust is a 2000 novel written by South African-born Gillian Slovo that is structured around the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the fictional town Smitsrivier and also addresses the question of truth. In post-apartheid South Africa, retired anti-apartheid activist and lawyer Ben Hoffman cannot turn down James Sizela's wish to use the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearing of local ex-police officer Dirk Hendricks to find out what happened to James's son Steve who has been missing since the mid-1980s confrontation between white state authorities and the black African National Congress (ANC). But Ben knows he cannot accept this case alone as he is ill and his powers are waning. He calls his former student, New York prosecutor Sarah Barcant to return to South Africa to help him with the amnesty hearing. They hope that the questioning of MP Alex Mpondo, a torture victim of Dirk and comrade of Steve, in connection with the TRC's full disclosure law will enable them to get hold of Pieter Muller, Smitsrivier's former police boss, whom they think killed Steve Sizela. Intended to reconcile South Africans with the violent chapter of their country's past the hearings turn out to open up old and create new wounds making the characters face the truth or their ideas of it. Biographical context. Gillian Slovo's interest in the TRC derives from her family background that is deeply rooted in the struggle against apartheid. In fact, her parents are the only whites buried in Soweto's Avalon Cemetery. Her father, Joe Slovo, led the South African Communist Party and was also a leading figure of the African National Congress. He is also one of the leaders of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC, founded in the early 1960s. Joe Slovo returned to South Africa in 1990 to take part in the negotiations between ANC and the white government about a peaceful transition towards democracy. He later served as Minister for Housing under Nelson Mandela until his death in 1995. Ruth First, Gillian's mother, was a determined activist as well. She worked, after having to flee South Africa in 1964, at various English universities before returning to the continent in 1978 to continue her struggle at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique. On 17 August 1982, she was murdered by a parcel bomb sent by the South African Security Force. She acknowledges that "Red Dust" is a direct result of her mother's death. She wrote, "The seeds of it were born out of my grave-side realisation that if the country would not leave me alone, then I would have to face it". Gillian Slovo experienced the workings of the TRC herself when she faced the murderer of her mother, Craig Williamson, in amnesty hearings in South Africa. She described the trial as extremely painful, especially given the result that Williamson received amnesty. Yet, she understood the way they (the Security Police) thought and used her personal experiences of unwanted intimacy in "Red Dust". Her attitude towards the TRC is reflected in her assumption that "It helps a whole society reconcile itself to its past, without ignoring or denying it." In an interview Slovo said: Characterizations. Alex Mpondo ANC- activist Alex Mpondo comes back to Smitsrivier, the city he grew up in, to face his former torturer Dirk Hendricks in order to help the Sizela family to find their murdered son Steve, Mpondo's friend as well as comrade in the struggle. Alex Mpondo was tortured for supplying the ANC with weaponry for the fight against the apartheid regime. He was caught and arrested along with Steve Sizela who he saw the last time being carried out of the prison almost dead. This caused an inner conflict about his responsibility of Steve's death because he isn't sure whether he broke in his interrogation and betrayed him by revealing his identity or not. To escape this struggle he left the town in 1985 and now is a Member of Parliament. Returning home people portray him as a "charismatic" "ladies man". Sarah Barcant, his lawyer in his amnesty hearing, notices first his strong hands, the blue Jeans and the white T-shirt that hung beautifully from his boxer's shoulders. For her he has "so much of the city about him". The image of the successful MP turns out to be only a facade he puts up to protect himself from his guilty conscience. All this time he has dealt with the problem by repressing his past. He tries to "put Steve out of his mind [and] buried him as surely as Steve himself has been buried". But the question, if he sealed his friend's fate, is still dominating his life: "Steve's death: his fault?" Alex comes only back on James Sizela's request, who holds him accountable for his son's passing away. "It is all for James's sake, (…), not for his own". Alex himself is scared to oppose Dirk Hendricks, because his past is going to be excavated. In the beginning of the hearings he tries to keep up his barrier to prevent Dirk Hendricks's narrative, his version of history, becoming his own. Sometimes, when his past gets a grip on him, he is unpredictable and shows hidden facets of his personality, like a "chameleon". But the urge to know the answer to his question drives him to keep cross-examining Dirk Hendricks, although he in many situations reaches the point, where he simply wants to quit. He can't stand the intimacy between his torturer and himself, knowing that "he'll turn the screws on him". Alex is ashamed of the fact that he might have broken by telling the place of the weapon storage and also anxious that by revealing this in court he could also lose his reputation of a hero. In his opinion Dirk has turned him white: "He was no longer black". In the end Alex Mpondo still doesn't know the truth, but yet he has gained a lot from facing Dirk Hendricks. By talking and reliving the events once more, he is now able to find a way to handle his emotions and to close with the past. He developed a working relationship to his lawyer Sarah Barcant, who forced him to continue the hearings. This climaxes in a love scene, which also is the last one since both of them prefer to continue their individual paths in life. Dirk Hendricks Dirk Hendricks is one of the main characters in "Red Dust". He is imprisoned for some other crime he committed during the time of apartheid. He is scared of being imprisoned once again, so he applies for amnesty. "…and Dirk a jailbird…that he looked like shit." These were Pieter Muller's first thoughts when he saw Dirk after coming out of the van. Because of his time in prison he lost nearly everything, including his family and his job. He suffers from PTSD and has lost his bearings in the new South Africa. Only his friendship to Pieter still remains. His last chance to finally obtain freedom is to apply for amnesty in front of the TRC. In fact Pieter Muller is guilty of murder. Dirk now is indecisive whether to stay loyal to Pieter or to tell the whole truth. From his point of view he didn't do anything criminal, he was ordered to do so in that special time of riot and trouble. He only did his duty. He was a patriot and believed in fighting for the right cause. His true self is only revealed to Alex. A main part of the story hinges on their intimate relationship of torturer and victim. Sarah Barcant Sarah Barcant, a 36 years old lawyer from New York, a typical career woman, well-dressed with fashionable clothes and "high-heels", comes back to her past. She is living in New York but was born in Smitsrivier, where she grew up and lived with her parents in the Main Street. Her father was an optician, but nevertheless he "had not made enough money to move his family of Main Street to Francis Avenue, which was home to most of Smitsrivier white population" (p. 33). She got the chance to study law and to move to New York with the help of Ben Hoffmann, her mentor. There she started a new life. After the end of apartheid her parents moved to Perth, Australia. Fourteen years later she now gets a telephone call from Ben, who needs her help for a new case in South Africa. Back in Smitsrivier she remembers her past and childhood. Everything has changed, but it is her who has changed most. She feels a bond to South Africa but doesn't belong there anymore. She is only focused on the case and not on the people around her and especially her client Alex Mpondo. Sarah is doing her job very accurately, "It's called preparation. I was taught to do it properly". She loves her job and shows good skills as a lawyer. One example is the hearing of Dirk Hendricks, where she puts him under pressure. Ben Hoffmann, however sees her different behaviour: "You are no longer the person I knew or the lawyer I trained. You think like a prosecutor. Is that what New York has done to you? Did it turn you into such an unfeeling monster?". At first she just wants to find out the truth and does not really care about the individual emotions and trauma involved, but just wants to do a good job. In the end she has changed. When she lies to Alex about his share in Steve's death she bends the truth to help him. One important relationship is the one to Ben Hoffman, her mentor. They met when he was middle-aged and she was fourteen. Ben changed her life because he taught her and then gave her the possibility to go to New York as a lawyer. He helped her in every situation, "he had shared his life with her, outside of his work". Sarah was always like a daughter to him. He still wants her to stay permanently: "Without Smitsrivier, without South Africa, you will always be less than you could ever have been." Pieter Muller Pieter Muller is the second character that is portrayed in the book. When the reader first encounters him, he is in his bedroom and wakes up because he thinks he heard something. He then goes outside with his dogs to check if everything is all right. When he finds nothing, he begins to puzzle about why he woke up and figures out that it must have been because of the TRC and James Sizela. Pieter is described as a thickset man with a big square face with narrow eyes, and heavy jowls resting on a bullish neck. He has downy ginger hair and a fading ginger beard. He has an air of authority over him and 'always moves with purpose'. He makes a living as the boss of a small security company in Smitsrivier. In the past Pieter worked as a police officer. There he interrogated Steve Sizela and tortured him for over a month until he died after he and Dirk put a wager on who would break his suspect first. He doesn't think that his actions were wrong. He says: "Steve's death was an oversight. [...] It was my hand that knocked his head against the wall, that knocked his brains out." This also shows how little remorse he shows for what he did. In the past he must have had a bad conscience though, because he makes Dirk bury the body while getting away with some weak excuse - he had to go to church - which also was his "death sentence". He tries to actively ignore the past - which makes him seem very stubborn and ignorant. Pieter cares deeply for his wife Mary, who is sick and needs help to get around the house and he is always looking after her. He sometimes still longs for how she used to be ("...but no, that version of his wife existed only in the past..." ). Another side of Pieter is that of a cold manipulator; he tries to influence Dirk Hendricks to not reveal any critical information. He also manipulates James Sizela to shoot him in the end of the book. He does this so that he doesn't have to go to the TRC and apply for amnesty, because it would be against his ideals, he would rather die than admit that he was wrong and beg for mercy. He also wants to cash in his insurance to make sure that his wife gets the support she needs. James Sizela "Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree." How does this quote relate to the character of James Sizela? James Sizela is an African, grey-haired old man with cinnamon bark skin, high cheek bones, a high forehead and gently slanting eyes. As headmaster of the local school he wears an old-fashioned pinstripe suit, which fits his general behaviour as he is stern and unmoving. He sees himself as a man of the old school and follows the principles of probity, morality and integrity. He teaches those principles at school and also raised his son, Steve, in that manner. Even though he wants to bury his long dead and missing son he does not really do a lot to support Sarah Barcant, who fights in court to find the body. James even gets angry when she wants to talk to him during class while he should be teaching. This is one example for his attitude towards work and duty, which is one of his higher priorities. He even misses the amnesty hearing of his son's murderer to go to work. This makes him look uninterested and not caring. In general he is quiet and it seems James doesn't allow emotions at all, and doesn't comfort his wife after Steve's remains are recovered. The latter shows that James Sizela has a problem with bonding and relationships which Pieter Muller proves when he talks to James about Steve. This is one of the moments James shows the one emotion he knows: anger. In fact he gets angry enough, when Pieter Muller tells him he is responsible for his son's death, to lose control and to kill Pieter, even though he is not himself at that moment, in doing so, he commits "Perjury of the highest degree" to his principles of probity, morality and integrity. As Muller's wife wrongly insists on her husband having killed himself she further denies James to deal with his action. He resigns from his teaching position. The character James Sizela is quite important to interpret Red Dust, because he shows that everybody can become a killer given the "right" circumstances. Ben Hoffmann "He looks […] frail like a broken doll." Ben Hoffmann is an ageing white lawyer who has already retired and who has spent all his skill and expertise into representing black people in court, even in the time of apartheid. He lives with his wife Anna in their house in town. They have a strict daily routine, treating each other with much respect. "In the fifty years they'd shared a bed, he'd never taken more than half unless invited to". They don't have any children, but Sarah Barcant, Ben's former student, more or less takes a daughter-role for Ben. Ben still treats Sarah like his student instead of as a grown-up who already worked as a prosecutor in New York for several years. He is a stubborn person, who refuses to give up his professional principles as a lawyer, even though he is severely ill. "I'm dying" "It had nevertheless been a life well lived. A good life, a rewarding life.[…] He had promised himself[…] to live out what remained to him in peace with his Anna". Ben Hoffman's function in "Red Dust" is to establish the link between the Sizelas and Sarah Barcant. Without him she would never have returned to her homeland South Africa. Also, he serves as the advocate of the moral justification of the TRC in the debates he has with Sarah. Structure. The novel is told from multiple perspectives using 3rd person selective omniscience. Thus Slovo adds heavily to the message by making the reader see through the eyes of all the characters in this network of truths and lies. Nobody is capable of establishing the truth. Appropriately Slovo cites Shakespeare before she starts her story:

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Sa Ngalan ng Diyos Sa Ngalan ng Diyos ("In the Name of God") is a Tagalog-language novel written in 1911 by Filipino author Faustino Aguilar. Controversially, it illustrated how greedy Jesuit priests schemed, manipulated, and took advantage of Carmen, a young, naive, pious, and affluent heiress. The 191-page book was published in Manila by the Limbagan at Aklatan Ni I.R. Morales (Printing Press and Library of I.R. Morales) during the American period in Philippine history (1898–1946). Plot. In the narrative, Jesuit priests used their religious authority and influence on Carmen to gain access to her wealth. Included in these plans and machinations was the destruction of the ongoing relationship between Carmen and Mr. Roland. Mr. Roland is Carmen's boyfriend. The priests succeeded. Carmen breaks up with Mr. Roland to enter the convent run by the Jesuit order. Thus, Carmen's inheritance became property of the priests. There was a scene when Eladio Resurreccion, a former cohort of the Jesuit priests, tried to set the convent on fire. However, Resurreccion's act of vengeance did not succeed. Only a stable for horses was ruined by the fire. Analysis. According to literary critic Soledad Reyes, "Sa Ngalan ng Diyos" is a "passionate polemic" against Jesuit priests, an influential religious order representing the Roman Catholic Church, a powerful and authoritative institution in the Philippines. Reyes further explained that Aguilar's "Sa Ngalan ng Diyos" is unlike the "polemical writing" or "literature of caricatures and parodies" during the 19th century because the novel scrutinized the Jesuits, not the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians who are categorically known as "friars who owned vast wealth and property" during the period. Aguilar, through the novel, showed his anti-clerical view and his being against the religious order of the Jesuits because of the maltreatment and humiliation his father received from Nicolas Dolanto, a Jesuit priest. Furthermore, Aguilar's father was accused by Dolanto as being a "Mason". Aguilar's novel scrutinized the "insidious hold" that religion, in general, may have over people, in this case the Catholic Church over Carmen, the heiress. Aguilar tackled the "aspects of religious faith" that can damage the "state of mind of people". The 2005 edition of Aguilar's novel that was published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press (ADMU Press) has an introduction by literary critic Roberto Añonuevo. In the introduction, Añonuevo discussed an additional topic that Aguilar tackled in "Sa Ngalan ng Diyos", namely the Katipunan of Philippine heroes Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto.

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Ben Singkol Ben Singkol is a 2001 novel written by Filipino National Artist F. Sionil José. It is about Benjamin "Ben" Singkol, who is described as “perhaps the most interesting character” created by the author. Based on José's novel, Singkol is a renowned novelist who wrote the book entitled ""Pain", an autobiography written during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Through the fictional novel Singkol recalled the hardships experienced by the Filipinos during the occupation. Singkol was described to be a coward, a "supot"" or an uncircumcised man who did not only run away from such a “ritual of manhood” but also evaded his “foxhole in Bataan when the Japanese soldiers were closing in”. Singkol was a “runner” or “evader” throughout much of his lifetime, while being haunted by the “poverty of his boyhood” and of the “treachery that he may have committed” in the past. In 1982, Singkol began receiving letters from a Japanese named Haruko Kitamura.

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Pharaoh (Prus novel) Pharaoh () is the fourth and last major novel by the Polish writer Bolesław Prus (1847–1912). Composed over a year's time in 1894–95, serialized in 1895–96, and published in book form in 1897, it was the sole historical novel by an author who had earlier disapproved of historical novels on the ground that they inevitably distort history. "Pharaoh" has been described by Czesław Miłosz as a "novel on... mechanism[s] of state power and, as such, ... probably unique in world literature of the nineteenth century... Prus, [in] selecting the reign of 'Pharaoh Ramses XIII' in the eleventh century BCE, sought a perspective that was detached from... pressures of [topicality] and censorship. Through his analysis of the dynamics of an ancient Egyptian society, he... suggest[s] an archetype of the struggle for power that goes on within any state." "Pharaoh" is set in the Egypt of 1087–85 BCE as that country experiences internal stresses and external threats that will culminate in the fall of its Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom. The young protagonist Ramses learns that those who would challenge the powers that be are vulnerable to co-option, seduction, subornation, defamation, intimidation and assassination. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, of knowledge. Prus' vision of the fall of an ancient civilization derives some of its power from the author's keen awareness of the final demise of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, a century before the completion of the novel. Preparatory to writing "Pharaoh", Prus immersed himself in ancient Egyptian history, geography, customs, religion, art and writings. In the course of telling his story of power, personality, and the fates of nations, he produced a compelling literary depiction of life at every level of ancient Egyptian society. Further, he offers a vision of mankind as rich as Shakespeare's, ranging from the sublime to the quotidian, from the tragic to the comic. The book is written in limpid prose and is imbued with poetry, leavened with humor, graced with moments of transcendent beauty. "Pharaoh" has been translated into twenty languages and adapted as a 1966 Polish feature film. It is also known to have been Joseph Stalin's favourite book. Publication. "Pharaoh" comprises a compact, substantial introduction; sixty-seven chapters; and an evocative epilogue (the latter omitted at the book's original publication, and restored in the 1950s). Like Prus' previous novels, "Pharaoh" debuted (1895–96) in newspaper serialization—in the Warsaw "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" (Illustrated Weekly). It was dedicated "To my wife, Oktawia Głowacka, "née" Trembińska, as a small token of esteem and affection." Unlike the author's earlier novels, "Pharaoh" had first been composed in its entirety, rather than being written in chapters from issue to issue. This may account for its often being described as Prus' "best-composed novel"—indeed, "one of the best-composed Polish novels." The original 1897 book edition and some subsequent ones divided the novel into three volumes. Later editions have presented it in two volumes or in a single one. Except in wartime, the book has never been out of print in Poland. Plot. "Pharaoh" begins with one of the more memorable openings in a novel — an opening written in the style of an ancient chronicle: "Pharaoh" combines features of several literary genres: the historical novel, the political novel, the "Bildungsroman", the utopian novel, the sensation novel. It also comprises a number of interbraided strands — including the plot line, Egypt's cycle of seasons, the country's geography and monuments, and ancient Egyptian practices (e.g. mummification rituals and techniques) — each of which rises to prominence at appropriate moments. Much as in an ancient Greek tragedy, the fate of the novel's protagonist, the future "Ramses XIII," is known from the beginning. Prus closes his introduction with the statement that the narrative "relates to the eleventh century before Christ, when the Twentieth Dynasty fell and when, after the demise of the Son of the Sun the eternally living Ramses XIII, the throne was seized by, and the uraeus came to adorn the brow of, the eternally living Son of the Sun Sem-amen-Herhor, High Priest of Amon." What the novel will subsequently reveal is the elements that lead to this denouement—the character traits of the principals, the social forces in play. Ancient Egypt at the end of its New Kingdom period is experiencing adversities. The deserts are eroding Egypt's arable land. The country's population has declined from eight to six million. Foreign peoples are entering Egypt in ever-growing numbers, undermining its unity. The chasm between the peasants and craftsmen on one hand, and the ruling classes on the other, is growing, exacerbated by the ruling elites' fondness for luxury and idleness. The country is becoming ever more deeply indebted to Phoenician merchants, as imported goods destroy native industries. The Egyptian priesthood, backbone of the bureaucracy and virtual monopolists of knowledge, have grown immensely wealthy at the expense of the pharaoh and the country. At the same time, Egypt is facing prospective peril at the hands of rising powers to the north — Assyria and Persia. The 22-year-old Egyptian crown prince and viceroy Ramses, having made a careful study of his country and of the challenges that it faces, evolves a strategy that he hopes will arrest the decline of his own political power and of Egypt's internal viability and international standing. Ramses plans to win over or subordinate the priesthood, especially the High Priest of Amon, Herhor; obtain for the country's use the treasures that lie stored in the Labyrinth; and, emulating Ramses the Great's military exploits, wage war on Assyria. Ramses proves himself a brilliant military commander in a victorious lightning war against the invading Libyans. On succeeding to the throne, he encounters the adamant opposition of the priestly hierarchy to his planned reforms. The Egyptian populace is instinctively drawn to Ramses, but he must still win over or crush the priesthood and their adherents. In the course of the political intrigue, Ramses' private life becomes hostage to the conflicting interests of the Phoenicians and the Egyptian high priests. Ramses' ultimate downfall is caused by his underestimation of his opponents and by his impatience with priestly obscurantism. Along with the chaff of the priests' myths and rituals, he has inadvertently discarded a crucial piece of scientific knowledge. Ramses is succeeded to the throne by his arch-enemy Herhor, who paradoxically ends up raising treasure from the Labyrinth to finance the very social reforms that had been planned by Ramses, and whose implementation Herhor and his allies had blocked. But it is too late to arrest the decline of the Egyptian polity and to avert the eventual fall of the Egyptian civilization. The novel closes with a poetic epilogue that reflects Prus' own path through life. The priest Pentuer, who had declined to betray the priesthood and aid Ramses' campaign to reform the Egyptian polity, mourns Ramses, who like the teenage Prus had risked all to save his country. As Pentuer and his mentor, the sage priest Menes, listen to the song of a mendicant priest, Pentuer says: Characters. Prus took characters' names where he found them, sometimes anachronistically or anatopistically. At other times (as with "Nitager", commander of the army that guards the gates of Egypt from attack by Asiatic peoples, in chapter 1 "et seq."; and as with the priest "Samentu", in chapter 55 "et seq.") he apparently invented them. The origins of the names of some prominent characters may be of interest: Themes. "Pharaoh" belongs to a Polish literary tradition of political fiction whose roots reach back to the 16th century and Jan Kochanowski's play, "The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys" (1578), and also includes Ignacy Krasicki's "Fables and Parables" (1779) and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz's "The Return of the Deputy" (1790). "Pharaoh"'s story covers a two-year period, ending in 1085 BCE with the demise of the Egyptian Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom. Polish Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz has written of "Pharaoh": The perspective of which Miłosz writes, enables Prus, while formulating an ostensibly objective vision of historic Egypt, simultaneously to create a satire on man and society, much as Jonathan Swift in Britain had done the previous century. But "Pharaoh" is "par excellence" a political novel. Its young protagonist, Prince Ramses (who is 22 years old at the novel's opening), learns that those who would oppose the priesthood are vulnerable to cooptation, seduction, subornation, defamation, intimidation or assassination. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, of knowledge — of science. As a political novel, "Pharaoh" became a favorite of Joseph Stalin's; similarities have been pointed out between it and Sergei Eisenstein's film "Ivan the Terrible", produced under Stalin's tutelage. The novel's English translator has recounted wondering, well in advance of the event, whether President John F. Kennedy would meet with a fate like that of the book's protagonist. "Pharaoh" is, in a sense, an extended study of the metaphor of society-as-organism that Prus had adopted from English philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer, and that Prus makes explicit in the introduction to the novel: "the Egyptian nation in its times of greatness formed, as it were, a single person, in which the priesthood was the mind, the pharaoh was the will, the people the body, and obedience the cement." All of society's organ systems must work together harmoniously, if society is to survive and prosper. "Pharaoh" is a study of factors that affect the rise and fall of civilizations. Inspirations. "Pharaoh" is unique in Prus' "oeuvre" as a "historical" novel. A Positivist by philosophical persuasion, Prus had long argued that historical novels must inevitably distort historic reality. He had, however, eventually come over to the view of the French Positivist critic Hippolyte Taine that the arts, including literature, may act as a second means alongside the sciences to study reality, including broad historic reality. Prus, in the interest of making certain points, intentionally introduced some anachronisms and anatopisms into the novel. The book's depiction of the demise of Egypt's New Kingdom three thousand years earlier, reflects the demise of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, exactly a century before "Pharaoh"'s completion. A preliminary sketch for Prus' only historical novel was his first historical short story, "A Legend of Old Egypt." This remarkable story shows clear parallels with the subsequent novel in setting, theme and denouement. "A Legend of Old Egypt", in its turn, had taken inspiration from contemporaneous events: the fatal 1887-88 illnesses of Germany's warlike Kaiser Wilhelm I and of his reform-minded son and successor, Friedrich III. The latter emperor "would", then unbeknown to Prus, survive his ninety-year-old predecessor, but only by ninety-nine days. In 1893 Prus' old friend Julian Ochorowicz, having returned to Warsaw from Paris, delivered several public lectures on ancient Egyptian knowledge. Ochorowicz (whom Prus had portrayed in "The Doll" as the scientist "Julian Ochocki," obsessed with inventing a powered flying machine, a decade and a half before the Wright brothers’ 1903 flight) may have inspired Prus to write his historical novel about ancient Egypt. Ochorowicz made available to Prus books on the subject that he had brought from Paris. In preparation for composing "Pharaoh", Prus made a painstaking study of Egyptological sources, including works by John William Draper, Ignacy Żagiell, Georg Ebers and Gaston Maspero. Prus actually incorporated ancient texts into his novel like tesserae into a mosaic; drawn from one such text was a major character, Ennana. "Pharaoh" also alludes to biblical Old Testament accounts of Moses (chapter 7), the plagues of Egypt (chapter 64), and Judith and Holofernes (chapter 7); and to Troy, which had recently been excavated by Heinrich Schliemann. For certain of the novel's prominent features, Prus, the conscientious journalist and scholar, seems to have insisted on having two sources, one of them based on personal or at least contemporary experience. One such dually-determined feature relates to Egyptian beliefs about an afterlife. In 1893, the year before beginning his novel, Prus the skeptic had started taking an intense interest in Spiritualism, attending Warsaw séances which featured the Italian medium, Eusapia Palladino—the same medium whose Paris séances, a dozen years later, would be attended by Pierre and Marie Curie. Palladino had been brought to Warsaw from a St. Petersburg mediumistic tour by Prus' friend Ochorowicz. Modern Spiritualism had been initiated in 1848 in Hydeville, New York, by the Fox sisters, Katie and Margaret, aged 11 and 15, and had survived even their 1888 confession that forty years earlier they had caused the "spirits'" telegraph-like tapping sounds by snapping their toe joints. Spiritualist "mediums" in America and Europe claimed to communicate through tapping sounds with spirits of the dead, eliciting their secrets and conjuring up voices, music, noises and other antics, and occasionally working "miracles" such as levitation. Spiritualism inspired several of "Pharaoh"'s most striking scenes, especially (chapter 20) the secret meeting at the Temple of Seth in Memphis between three Egyptian priests—Herhor, Mefres, Pentuer—and the Chaldean magus-priest Berossus; and (chapter 26) the protagonist Ramses' night-time exploration at the Temple of Hathor in Pi-Bast, when unseen hands touch his head and back. Another dually determined feature of the novel is the "Suez Canal" that the Phoenician Prince Hiram proposes digging. The modern Suez Canal had been completed by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1869, a quarter-century before Prus commenced writing "Pharaoh". But, as Prus was aware when writing chapter one, the Suez Canal had had a predecessor in a canal that had connected the Nile River with the Red Sea — during Egypt's Middle Kingdom, centuries before the period of the novel. A third dually determined feature of "Pharaoh" is the historical Egyptian Labyrinth, which had been described in the fifth century BCE in Book II of "The Histories of Herodotus". The Father of History had visited Egypt's entirely stone-built administrative center, pronounced it more impressive than the pyramids, declared it "beyond my power to describe"—then proceeded to give a striking description that Prus incorporated into his novel. The Labyrinth had, however, been made palpably real for Prus by an 1878 visit that he had paid to the famous ancient labyrinthine salt mine at Wieliczka, near Kraków in southern Poland. According to the foremost Prus scholar, Zygmunt Szweykowski, "The power of the Labyrinth scenes stems, among other things, from the fact that they echo Prus' own experiences when visiting Wieliczka." Writing over four decades before the construction of the United States' Fort Knox Depository, Prus pictures Egypt's Labyrinth as a perhaps flood-able Egyptian Fort Knox, a repository of gold bullion and of artistic and historic treasures. It was, he writes (chapter 56), "the greatest treasury in Egypt. [H]ere... was preserved the treasure of the Egyptian kingdom, accumulated over centuries, of which it is difficult today to have any conception." Finally, a fourth dually determined feature was inspired by a solar eclipse that Prus had witnessed at Mława, a hundred kilometers north-northwest of Warsaw, on 19 August 1887, the day before his fortieth birthday. Prus probably also was aware of Christopher Columbus' manipulative use of a "lunar" eclipse on 29 February 1504, while marooned for a year on Jamaica, to extort provisions from the Arawak natives. The latter incident strikingly resembles the exploitation of a "solar" eclipse by Ramses' chief adversary, Herhor, high priest of Amon, in a culminating scene of the novel. (Similar use of Columbus' lunar eclipse had in 1889 been made by Mark Twain in "A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court".) Yet another plot element involves the Greek, Lykon, in chapters 63 and 66 and "passim"—hypnosis and post-hypnotic suggestion. It is unclear whether Prus, in using the plot device of the look-alike (Berossus' double; Lykon as double to Ramses), was inspired by earlier novelists who had employed it, including Alexandre Dumas ("", 1850), Charles Dickens ("A Tale of Two Cities", 1859) and Mark Twain ("The Prince and the Pauper", 1882). Prus, a disciple of Positivist philosophy, took a strong interest in the history of science. He was aware of Eratosthenes' remarkably accurate calculation of the earth's circumference, and the invention of a steam engine by Heron of Alexandria, centuries after the period of his novel, in Alexandrian Egypt. In chapter 60, he fictitiously credits these achievements to the priest Menes, one of three individuals of the identical name who are mentioned or depicted in "Pharaoh": Prus was not always fastidious about characters' names. Accuracy. Examples of anachronism and anatopism, mentioned above, bear out that a punctilious historical accuracy was never an object with Prus in writing "Pharaoh." "That's not the point", Prus' compatriot Joseph Conrad told a relative. Prus had long emphasized in his "Weekly Chronicles" articles that historical novels cannot but distort historic reality. He used ancient Egypt as a canvas on which to depict his deeply considered perspectives on man, civilization and politics. Nevertheless, "Pharaoh" "is" remarkably accurate, even from the standpoint of present-day Egyptology. The novel does a notable job of recreating a primal ancient civilization, complete with the geography, climate, plants, animals, ethnicities, countryside, agriculture, cities, trades, commerce, social stratification, politics, religion and warfare. Prus succeeds remarkably in transporting readers back to the Egypt of thirty-one centuries ago. The embalming and funeral scenes; the court protocol; the waking and feeding of the gods; the religious beliefs, ceremonies and processions; the concept behind the design of Pharaoh Zoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara; the descriptions of travels and of locales visited on the Nile and in the desert; Egypt's exploitation of Nubia as a source of gold — all draw upon scholarly documentation. The personalities and behaviors of the characters are keenly observed and deftly drawn, often with the aid of apt Egyptian texts. Popularity. "Pharaoh", as a "political novel", has remained perennially topical ever since it was written. The book's enduring popularity, however, has as much to do with a critical yet sympathetic view of human nature and the human condition. Prus offers a vision of mankind as rich as Shakespeare's, ranging from the sublime to the quotidian, from the tragic to the comic. The book is written in limpid prose, imbued with poetry, leavened with humor, graced with moments of transcendent beauty. Joseph Conrad, during his 1914 visit to Poland just as World War I was breaking out, "delighted in his beloved Prus" and read "Pharaoh" and everything else by the ten-years-older, recently deceased author that he could get his hands on. He pronounced his fellow victim of Poland's 1863 Uprising "better than Dickens"—Dickens being a favorite author of Conrad's. The novel has been translated into twenty-two languages: Armenian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, French, Georgian, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian. "Pharaoh" has been published in a 2020 English translation by Christopher Kasparek, as an Amazon Kindle e-book, which supersedes an incomplete and incompetent version by Jeremiah Curtin published in 1902 as well as Kasparek's own earlier hardcover translations of 1991 and 2001. Film. In 1966 "Pharaoh" was adapted as a Polish feature film directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz. In 1967 the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film. References.    Return to top of page.

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Tiara i korona Tiara i korona is a novel by Polish writer Teodor Jeske-Choiński, first published in 1900. Political conflict and religious views are central to the novel which explores the famous dispute between the Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII.

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Always Hiding Always Hiding is a novel written by Filipino-American novelist Sophia Romero. Published by the William Morrow and Company in March/April 1998, the 272-page English-language novel's title was the translation of the Tagalog-language phrase "Tago nang tago". Abbreviated as "TNT", the phrase is a moniker for "an illegal alien in the United States" who always has to hide and be cautious in his/her movements so as not to be found and caught by immigration authorities. Plot. The main protagonist in Romero's novel is Violetta Rosario "Viola" Dananay. Viola narrates her life in the Philippines and her eventual move to the United States. Viola was conceived before the marriage of her parents who belong to Manila's socialite class. Viola grew up in Manila during the regime of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos. Her life was complicated by her quarrelsome parents. One of the main reasons for the disagreements between Viola's parents was her father's reputation as a womanizer and philanderer. Viola's father left the family to live with a pregnant mistress. Viola's mother, Ludy, left for the United States to escape the indiscretions of her husband, leaving Viola behind. Upon arrival in America, Viola's mother became an undocumented immigrant working as a maid in New York City. After the fall of the Marcoses, Viola's father was implicated in charges of corruption committed by the Marcos government. Viola's father decided to send Viola, already a teenager, to the United States to live with her mother. Viola obeyed her father but with a "secret agenda": to return to the Philippines together with her mother. Analysis. According to "Publishers Weekly" the female character and narrator Viola felt inferior and “morally rudderless”, without direction because of her physical features, comparing herself from the Caucasian features of the Europeans. She was a teenage protagonist that “never seems to grow up” or mature, self-centered, and a person who suffered from “shallow self-dramatizations”. "Booklist" described Viola as a young woman focused on her own feelings of recklessness and abandonment, and "couched" or stuck in using "stolen" American phrases but with a firm grip of Filipino values. Although “smoothly but predictably written” and “with blatant symbolism”, the author of "Always Hiding" was not able to “fully exploit her plot’s full potential resonance”. One particular example was that Romero was able to present the evident parallels between the political and personal circumstances that ruined Viola's family, as well as the situations that divided the Philippines, but Romero was not able to utilize such conditions in order to make the story line reverberate further. Thus, Romero (a Filipino American) was not able to reveal enough of the Filipino-American experience or the contributions of the Filipino immigrant to the history of the United States. Romero was also not able to provide Viola, the character, with the “dignity” of an “unsympathetic heroine”. Despite this literary criticism, the "Library Journal" described "Always Hiding" as a novel "about family, love, honor, and modern Filipino life” in the Philippines and in the United States. According to "Booklist", there were abrupt changes in the direction of the plot and the dialogue between the characters reflects the "tumultuous feelings" of the young heroine, but the author was able to maintain her emotional closeness to the reader. The novel brings “sparkling humor and fresh perspective” and a portrayal of “dangerous situations” that reveals the strength and potency of the characters, not their fear and apprehension.

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Ipaghiganti Mo Ako...! Ipaghiganti Mo Ako...! ("Avenge Me…!") is a 1914 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist and dramatist Precioso Palma. The 207-page book was published in Manila by Limbagang Banahaw during the American era in Philippine history (1898-1946). The 1914 version of the novel has an afterword written by Julian C. Balmaceda. Description. "Ipaghiganti Mo Ako…!" is a romance, war, historical, and political novel. The love story revolves around a couple named Pedring and Geli. As a war and historical novel, the time was set before, during, and after the Philippine–American War. It depicted the effects of war on the Filipino people. It is a political novel because, according to literary critic Soledad Reyes, Palma’s novel “offers one of the strongest indictments against American colonialism”. In 2004, the Ateneo de Manila University Press republished "Ipaghiganti Mo Ako...!" by pairing it with Isabelo de los Reyes's "Ang Singsing ng Dalagang Marmol" ("The Ring of the Marble Maiden"). The combined short novels or novelettes have similarities. Both tackles romance and relationship during wartime, wherein the characters "deal with forked road of separation" and reunion after the revelation of secrets. Plot. The novel begins months before the onset of the Philippine–American War. Because of the war, Pedring and Geli got separated from each other. Geli and her mother, together with other Filipinos in the affected provinces in Luzon, had to flee their homes and became displaced. Pedring and Geli meets again in Antipolo after five years. They were reunited under tragic circumstances. Geli was dying. Geli was also pregnant after becoming a victim of rape during the war. Geli's rapist was a Katipunan member. Geli wants Pedring to become her avenger.

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Mass (novel) Mass, also known as Mass: A Novel, is a 1973 historical and political novel written by Filipino National Artist F. Sionil José. Together with "The Pretenders", the "Mass" is the completion of José’s "The Rosales Saga", which is also known as the "Rosales Novels". The literary message of "Mass" was "a society intent only on calculating a man's price is one that ultimately devalues all men". Description. The narrative of "Mass" pictured the Philippines during the years prior to and after the imposition of Martial Law in 1972, which occurred within the scope of the middle and the late periods of the twentieth century. It narrated about a movement advocating reform, the resulting struggle for human rights, students’ rights, tenants’ rights, and women’s rights, and mass protests that were manipulated by "fraudulent leaders". The uprising failed. One of the characters went back to Central Luzon to discover his origins in order to rebuild his life. Characters. The main character of "Mass" is José “Pepe” Samson, a resident of Tondo, Manila. He is the illegitimate son of Antonio “Tony” Samson, the primary character in José’s "The Pretenders". Pepe was also the great-grandson of Istak, the principal protagonist in José’s "Po-on". Instead of becoming like his father who was enticed by wealth, Pepe became a follower of a former commander of the Hukbalahap(Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon) rebels turned local affairs devotee and student leader in Manila. Pepe Samson was raised by Emy in Cabugawan, then goes to live with an aunt in Manila in order to study in college. He became a drug dealer for a gangster named Kuya Nick. After leaving the illegal job, Pepe joined the revolutionary group known as The Brotherhood. In the end, Pepe committed a "revolutionary act". Other characters included student activists, members of women’s liberation movement, drug addicts, and intellectuals. Some characters were from previous novels that were parts of "The Rosales Saga".

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Conversation in the Cathedral Conversation in The Cathedral (original title: "Conversación en La catedral") is a 1969 novel by Spanish-Peruvian writer and essayist Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Gregory Rabassa. One of Vargas Llosa's major works, it is a portrayal of Peru under the dictatorship of Manuel A. Odría in the 1950s, and deals with the lives of characters from different social strata. The ambitious narrative is built around the stories of Santiago Zavala and Ambrosio respectively; one the son of a minister, the other his chauffeur. A random meeting at a dog pound leads to a riveting conversation between the two at a nearby bar known as the cathedral (hence the title). During the encounter Zavala tries to find the truth about his father's role in the murder of a notorious Peruvian underworld figure, shedding light on the workings of a dictatorship along the way. The protagonist of the novel, Santiago Zavala, is a student of the National University of San Marcos in Lima and an activist with the group Cahuide against the dictatorship of the government of Peru; Santiago is based on some real life experiences of Vargas Llosa, during his first years at University of San Marcos and as a member of the activist group Cahuide. In the novel, the protagonist Santiago Zavala depicts a pessimistic view of Peruvian society during the 1950s, at the same time he is embracing the mediocrity. More generally, the novel is an examination of the deep roots of corruption and failure in Peruvian politics and government during the 1950s. The second sentence of the English translation of the novel poses the question "At what precise moment had Peru fucked itself up?"

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Vibora! Vibora! (literally meaning "Viper!") is a 2007 novel written by Filipino National Artist F. Sionil José. The novel narrates the life of an accidental hero, Benjamin Singkol, during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines after escaping from Bataan during the Second World War. Singkol in turn narrates the life of Artemio "Vibora" Ricarte whose identity is being questioned: whether a patriot or a collaborator to the Japanese occupiers.

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Mga Ibong Mandaragit Mga Ibong Mandaragit or Mga Ibong Mandaragit: Nobelang Sosyo-Politikal (literally, "Birds of Prey: A Socio-Political Novel") is a novel written by the Filipino writer and social activist, Amado V. Hernandez in 1969. "Mga Ibong Mandaragit", hailed as Hernandez's masterpiece, focuses on the neocolonial dependency and revolt in the Philippines. The novel reflects Hernandez's experience as a guerrilla intelligence officer when the Philippines was under Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945. Description. The narrative, illustrates Hernandez's yearning for change and the elevation of the status of Philippine society and living conditions of Filipinos. The setting is in the middle of 1944, when the armed forces of the Japanese Empire were losing. The novel acts as a sequel to Jose Rizal's historic "Noli Me Tangere" and "El filibusterismo". The protagonist Mando Plaridel is tested by Tata Matyas, an old revolutionary, on his knowledge about Rizal and Rizal's novels. Similar to Rizal's novel, the main character examines the Philippines as an outsider while traveling in Europe. Hernandez's novel also tackles the lead character's search for Simoun's treasure, acting as a continuation of Rizal's "El Filibusterismo". The novel portrays the conditions of the citizenry at the onset of industrialization brought forth by the Americans in the Philippines. "Mga Ibong Mandaragit" had been translated into English and Russian.

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Canal de la Reina Canal de la Reina is a 1972 Filipino novel written by Filipino novelist Liwayway A. Arceo. The novel exposes the social cancer in the high levels of contemporary Philippine society. The social cancer, based on the novel, is masked by the flamboyance and the pomposity of the affluent members of Filipino society." Title and Setting. The novel takes its name from the titular Estero de la Reina (sometimes called the Canal de la Reina) - one of the rivulets, known as "esteros", which delineated the small islands which historically constituted the City of Manila. Estero de la Reina is a manmade estro, which was dug through the fishponds of Bindondo during Spanish times, in order to facilitate the passage of shipped goods. Plot. The story begins with the De Los Angeles family arriving at the matriarch's (Caridad) old home. Upon seeing the place, Junior and Leni, Caridad's children, are immediately repulsed by their surroundings and hesitantly leave the car they arrived in along with their father, enlisting the help of a young boy to watch it for 25 centavos. Vicenta Marcial, also known as Nyora Tentay (the term "senyora" is the Filipino word for the Spanish term "señora", meaning "Mrs."; "nyora" is the condensed term for "senyora"), is the matriarch of the wealthy Marcial family, and is labelled the "queen of Canal de la Reina". She is a money lender who charges high interest rates. She lives with her maid, Dominga Canlas (Ingga), whom she often mistreats, making her starve, and not giving her the right salary at the right time. Nyora Tentay has a son, Victor, who is married to Gracia. They have a son, Gerry. Meanwhile, Salvador and Caridad De los Angeles are husband and wife. Their children are Leni and Junior. Gerry Marcial and Leni de los Angeles are lovers. Nyora Tentay buys a piece of land from the De los Angeles' former caretaker, Precioso or Osyong Santos. The land belongs to the De los Angeles family. She then uses bribery to assert her claim over the De Los Angeles family's land. The De Los Angeles family's lawyer, Atty. Agulto, finds out that Nyora Tentay's papers documents to the land at Canal dela Reina were falsified. That the family had sold to land to Osyong, then Osyong sold it to Nyora Tentay, even though it did not happen. A flood occurs at Canal de la Reina, which damages buildings and structures. Nyora Tentay and Ingga part ways after the flood. Ingga is welcomed at the De Los Angeles' home, through the help of Junior. Caridad then finds Nyora Tentay's documents, which Ingga was able to save and bring with her. Despite her resistance, Ingga was eventually convinced by Caridad to return the documents to Nyora Tentay. Victor meets Junior, who was requested by Ingga to return the documents. Caridad was able to meet with Osyong's wife, Tisya, who explained what really happened: Nyora Tentay threatened to send her and Osyong to prison if he does not sell the land to her, and that doing such is the only way they could pay for their debt to her. Victor then convinces Nyora Tentay, who ended up in the hospital, to return the land at Canal dela Reina to its rightful owners, the De Los Angeles family, but she shuns him away in the middle of their conversation and tells him she no longer wants to talk. Leni passes her licensure exam and becomes a full-fledged doctor. She and Gerry get married. The De Los Angeles family members re-visit the land at Canal de la Reina. Junior tells his parents that he sees great things in store for the whole Canal de la Reina.

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Ice Road (2004) Ice Road is a novel written by South African-born Gillian Slovo. It was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Set in Leningrad in the 1930s, the story about power in Stalinist Russia is narrated by Irina Davydovna, a cleaning lady.

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Radetzky March (novel) Radetzky March () is a 1932 family saga novel by Joseph Roth chronicling the decline and fall of Austria-Hungary via the story of the Trotta family. "Radetzkymarsch" is an early example of a story that features the recurring participation of a historical figure, in this case the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (1830–1916). Roth continues his account of the Trotta family to the time of the Anschluss in his "The Emperor's Tomb" ("Kapuzinergruft", 1938). The novel was published in English translation in 1933, and in a new, more literal, translation in 1995. Plot. "Radetzky March" relates the stories of three generations of the Trotta family, professional Austro-Hungarian soldiers and career bureaucrats of Slovenian origin — from their zenith during the empire to the nadir and breakup of that world during and after the First World War. In 1859, the Austrian Empire (1804–67) was fighting the Second War of Italian Independence (29 April – 11 July 1859), against French and Italian belligerents: Napoleon III of France, the Emperor of the French, and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. In northern Italy, during the Battle of Solferino (24 June 1859), the well-intentioned, but blundering, Emperor Franz Joseph I, is almost killed. To thwart snipers, Infantry Lieutenant Trotta topples the Emperor from his horse. The Emperor awards Lt. Trotta the Order of Maria Theresa and ennobles him. Elevation to the nobility ultimately leads to the Trotta family's ruination, paralleling the imperial collapse of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). Following his social elevation Lt. Trotta, now Baron Trotta, is regarded by his family — including his father — as a man of superior quality. Although he does not assume the airs of a social superior, everyone from the new baron's old life perceives him as a changed person, as a nobleman. The perceptions and expectations of society eventually compel his reluctant integration into the aristocracy, a class amongst whom he feels temperamentally uncomfortable. As a father, the first Baron Trotta is disgusted by the historical revisionism that the national school system is teaching his son's generation. The school history textbook presents as fact a legend about his battlefield rescue of the Emperor. He finds especially galling the misrepresentation that infantry lieutenant Trotta was a cavalry officer. The Baron appeals to the Emperor to have the school book corrected. The Emperor considers however that such a truth would yield an uninspiring, pedestrian history, useless to Austro-Hungarian patriotism. Therefore, whether or not history textbooks report Infantry Lt. Trotta's battlefield heroism as legend or as fact, he orders the story deleted from the official history of Austria-Hungary. The subsequent Trotta family generations misunderstand the elder generation's reverence for the legend of Lt. Trotta's saving the life of the Emperor and consider themselves to be rightful aristocrats. The disillusioned Baron Trotta opposes his son's aspirations to a military career, insisting he prepare to become a government official, the second most respected career in the Austrian Empire; by custom, the son was expected to obey. The son eventually becomes a district administrator in a Moravian town. As a father, the second Baron Trotta (still ignorant of why his war-hero father thwarted his military ambitions) sends his own son to become a cavalry officer; grandfather's legend determines grandson's life. The cavalry officer's career of the third Baron Trotta comprises postings throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a dissipated life of wine, women, song, gambling, and dueling, off-duty pursuits characteristic of the military officer class in peace-time. Following a fatal duel the young Trotta transfers from the socially elite Uhlans to a less prestigious Jäger regiment. Baron Trotta's infantry unit then suppresses an industrial strike in a garrison town. Awareness of the aftermath of his professional brutality begins Lieutenant Trotta's disillusionment with empire. He is killed, bravely but pointlessly, in a minor skirmish with Russian troops during the opening days of World War I. His lonely and grieving father, the District Commissioner, dies almost immediately after Franz Joseph two years later. Two mourners at the funeral conclude that neither the second von Trotta nor the old Emperor could have survived the dying Empire. Literary significance. "Radetzky March" is Joseph Roth's best-known work. It was critically acclaimed after being first published in German in 1932 and then translated to English in 1933. In 2003, the German literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki included it in "Der Kanon" ("The Canon") of the most important German-language literary novels. It is a novel of the ironies and humour inherent in the well-intentioned actions that led to the decline and fall of a family and an empire; the Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria-Hungary remains ignorant of the unintended, negative consequences of so rewarding his subjects, and he continues conferring great favors, as with Lt. Trotta, after the Battle of Solferino in 1859. The novel's title derives from the "Radetzky March", Op. 228 (1848), by Johann Strauss Sr. (1804–49), which honors the Austrian Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz (1766–1858). It is a symbolic musical composition heard at critical narrative junctures of the Trotta family history. During an interview on the United States TV show "Charlie Rose", Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa ranked "The Radetzky March" as the best political novel ever written. When time passed, the multi-generation family saga "Radetzky March" brought its author an acclaim and recognition as "one of the greatest German-language writers of the 20th century." Publication history. The first German edition of the novel, "Radetzkymarsch", was published in 1932 by "Verlag Kiepenheuer" in Berlin. In 2010, it was re-issued with epilogue and commentary by Werner Bellmann, Stuttgart: Reclam, 2010 (540 pages). "Radetzky March" has been translated into various languages. Geoffrey Dunlop translated it to English in 1933. Soffy Topsøe translated it into Danish in that same year, and Hugo Hultenberg into Swedish. The 1934 French edition was translated by Blanche Gidon. A Russian translation was published in 1939, a Spanish edition in 1950, Czech in 1961, Romanian in 1966, Polish in 1977, Portuguese in 1984, Croatian in 1991. A notable English translation was done by the poet Michael Hofmann, who has translated a number of other works by Joseph Roth. The first Persian translation by Mohammad Hemmati was published in 2016.

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Rudin Rudin (, ) is the first novel by Ivan Turgenev, a famous Russian writer best known for his short stories and the novel "Fathers and Sons". Turgenev started to work on it in 1855, and it was first published in the literary magazine "Sovremennik" in 1856; several changes were made by Turgenev in subsequent editions. It is perhaps the least known of Turgenev's novels. "Rudin" was the first of Turgenev's novels, but already in this work the topic of the superfluous man and his inability to act (which became a major theme of Turgenev's literary work) was explored. Similarly to other Turgenev's novels, the main conflict in "Rudin" was centred on a love story of the main character and a young, but intellectual and self-conscious woman who is contrasted with the main hero (this type of female character became known in literary criticism as «тургеневская девушка», “Turgenev girl”). Context. "Rudin" was written by Turgenev in the immediate aftermath of the Crimean War, when it became obvious to many educated Russians that reform was needed. The main debate of Turgenev's own generation was that of Slavophiles versus Westernizers. "Rudin" depicts a typical man of this generation (known as 'the men of forties'), intellectual but ineffective. This interpretation of the superfluous man as someone who possesses great intellectual ability and potential, but is unable to realize them stems from Turgenev's own view of human nature, expressed in his 1860 speech ‘Hamlet and Don Quixote’, where he contrasts egotistical Hamlet, too deep in reflection to act, and enthusiastic and un-thinking, but active Don Quixote. The main character of the novel, Rudin, is easily identified with Hamlet. Many critics suggest that the image of Rudin was at least partly autobiographical. Turgenev himself maintained the character was a "fairly faithful" portrait of the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, whom the author knew well. Alexander Herzen, who knew both men, said in his memoirs that the vacillating Rudin had more in common with the liberal Turgenev than the insurrectionist Bakunin. Rudin is often compared to Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and Lermontov’s Pechorin. The latter two are considered to be representations of their generations (‘men of twenties’ and ‘men of thirties’ respectively) as Rudin is considered to be a representation of his generation; the three literary works featuring these characters share many similarities in structure and all three characters are routinely referred to as ‘superfluous men’ (whether the term is applicable to all three has been a subject of scholarly debate). For a long time, Turgenev was unsure of the genre of "Rudin", publishing it with a subtitle of ‘novella’. In 1860, it was published together with two other novels, but in the three editions of Turgenev's "Works" that followed it was grouped with short stories. In the final, 1880, edition it was again placed at the head of the novels. The theme of the superfluous man in love was further explored in Turgenev's subsequent novels, culminating in "Fathers and Sons". Main characters. Dmitrii Nikolaevich Rudin. The main protagonist of the novel. Rudin is a well-educated, intellectual and extremely eloquent nobleman. His finances are in a poor state and he is dependent on others for his living. His father was a poor member of the gentry and died when Rudin was still very young. He was brought up by his mother, who spent all the money she had on him, and was educated at Moscow University and abroad in Germany, at Heidelberg and Berlin (Turgenev himself studied in Berlin). When he first appears in the novel, he is described as follows: “A man of about thirty-five […] of a tall, somewhat stooping figure, with crisp curly hair and swarthy complexion, an irregular but expressive and intelligent face.[…] His clothes were not new, and were somewhat small, as though he had outgrown them.” In the course of the novel he lives at Dar’ya Mikhailovna's estate and falls in love with her daughter, Natalya. This love is the main conflict of the novel. His eloquence earns him the respect of the estate's inhabitants, but several other characters display a strong dislike of him, and during the course of the novel it becomes apparent that he is “almost a Titan in word and a pigmy in deed” — that is, despite his eloquence he cannot accomplish what he talks of. Natal’ya Alekseevna Lasunskaya. Also referred to as Natasha. Natasha is a seventeen-year-old daughter of Dar’ya Mikhailovna. She is observant, well-read and intelligent, but also quite secretive. While her mother thinks of her as a good-natured and well-mannered girl, she is not of a high opinion about her intelligence, and quite wrongly. She also thinks Natasha is ‘cold’, emotionless, but in the beginning of Chapter Five we are told by the narrator that “Her feelings were strong and deep, but reserved; even as a child she seldom cried, and now she seldom even sighed and only grew slightly pale when anything distressed her.” She engages in intellectual conversations with Rudin (which are not discouraged by her mother because she thinks that these conversations “improve her mind”); Natasha thinks highly of Rudin, who confides to her his ideas and “privately gives her books”, and soon falls in love with him. She also often compels him to apply his talents and act. Natasha is often thought of as the first of 'Turgenev maids' to feature in Turgenev's fiction. Dar’ya Mikhailovna Lasunskaya. A female landowner at whose estate most of the events of the novel happen. She is the widow of a privy councillor, “a wealthy and distinguished lady”. While she is not very influential in St Petersburg, let alone Europe, she is notorious in Moscow society as “a rather eccentric woman, not wholly good-natured, but excessively clever.” She is also described as a beauty in her youth, but “not a trace of her former charms remained.” She shuns the society of local female landowners, but receives many men. Rudin at first gains her favour, but she is very displeased when she finds out about Rudin's and Natasha's love. That said, her opinion of Natasha is far from being correct. Mihailo Mihailych Lezhnev. A rich local landowner, generally thought to be a “queer creature” and described in Chapter One as having the appearance of “a huge sack of flour”. Lezhnev is about thirty years old, and seldom visits Dar’ya Mikhailovna (more often than before as the novel progresses), but is often found at Aleksandra's Pavlovna Lipina's house; he is friends both with her and her brother, Sergei. He was orphaned at the age of seventeen, lived at his aunt's and studied together with Rudin at Moscow University, where they were members of the same group of intellectual young men and was good friends with him; he also knew him abroad, but began to dislike him there as “Rudin struck [Lezhnev] in his true light.” Lezhnev is in fact in love with Aleksandra and in the end marries her. His character is often contrasted to Rudin's as he is seen as everything a superfluous man is not – he is intelligent, but in a more practical way, and while he does not do anything exceptional, he doesn't want to either. Seeley writes, that “he concentrates on doing the jobs that lie to hand – running his estate, raising a family – and these he does very competently. Beyond them he does not look.” Lezhnev also acts as Rudin's biographer – he is the one who tells the reader about Rudin's life prior to his appearance at Dar’ya Mikhailovna's. He first describes Rudin in extremely unfavourable terms, but in the end he is also the one who admits Rudin's “genius” in certain areas of life. Aleksandra Pavlovna Lipina. Also a local landowner, she is the first of major characters to be presented in the novel. She is described as “a widow, childless, and fairly well off”; we first see her visiting an ill peasant woman, and also find out that she maintains a hospital. She lives with her brother Sergei, who manages her estate, and visits Dar’ya Mikhailovna sometimes (less often as the novel progresses). Dar’ya Mikhailovna describes her as “a sweet creature […] a perfect child […] an absolute baby”, although the question remains of how well Dar’ya Mikhailovna can judge people. At first, she thinks very highly of Rudin and defends him against Lezhnev, but as the novel progresses she seems to side with his view of Rudin. In the end, she marries Lezhnev and seems to be an ideal partner for him. Sergei Pavlovich Volyntsev. Aleksandra's brother. He is a retired cavalry officer and manages his sister's estate. At the beginning of the novel he is a frequent guest at Dar’ya Mikhailovna's, because he is in love with Natasha. He takes a great dislike to Rudin, whom he sees as far too intelligent and, quite rightly, a dangerous rival. He is also slighted by Rudin when the latter comes to inform him of his mutual love with Natasha (with the best intentions). He is generally shown as a pleasant, if not very intellectual person, and is good friends with Lezhnev. Minor characters. Konstantin Diomidych Pandalevskii. Dar’ya Mikhailovna's secretary, a young man of affected manners. He is a flatterer and appears to be a generally dishonest and unpleasant person. He doesn't appear to play an important role in the novel apart from being a satirical image. Afrikan Semenych Pigasov. Described as “a strange person full of acerbity against everything and every one”, Pigasov frequently visits Dar’ya Mikhailovna prior to Rudin's appearance and amuses her with his bitter remarks, mostly aimed at women. Coming from a poor family, he educated himself, but never rose above the level of mediocrity. He failed his examination in public disputation, in government service he made a mistake which forced him to retire. His wife later left him and sold her estate, on which he just finished building a house, to a speculator. Since then he lived in the province. He is the first victim of Rudin's eloquence, as at Rudin's first appearance he challenged him to a debate and was defeated easily. He ends up living with Lezhnev and Aleksandra Pavlovna. Basistov. Tutor to Dar’ya Mikhailovna's younger sons. He is completely captivated by Rudin and seems to be inspired by him. Basistov is the first example of an intellectual from the raznochinets background (Bazarov and Raskol’nikov are among later, more prominent fictional heroes from this background). He also serves as an example of how Rudin is not completely useless since he can inspire people such as Basistov, who can then act in a way impossible for Rudin. Synopsis. Rudin’s arrival. The novel begins with the introduction of three of the characters – Aleksandra, Lezhnev, and Pandalevskii. Pandalevskii relates to Aleksandra Dar’ya Mikhailovna's invitation to come and meet a Baron Muffel’. Instead of the Baron, Rudin arrives and captivates everyone immediately with his intelligent and witty speeches during the argument with Pigasov. Rudin's arrival is delayed until Chapter Three. After his success at Dar’ya Mikhailovna's, he stays the night and the next morning meets Lezhnev who arrives to discuss some business affairs with Dar’ya Mikhailovna. This is the first time the reader finds out that Rudin and Lezhnev are acquainted, and studied together at university. During the day that follows Rudin has his first conversation with Natasha; as she speaks of him highly and says he “ought to work”, he replies with a lengthy speech. What follows is a description quite typical of Turgenev, where the character of Rudin is shown not through his own words, but through the text which underlines Rudin's contradictory statements: On the same day, Sergei leaves Dar’ya Mikhailovna's early and arrives to see that Lezhnev is visiting. Lezhnev then gives his first description of Rudin. Rudin and Natasha. In two months, we are told, Rudin is still staying at Dar’ya Mikhailovna's, living off borrowed money. He spends a lot of time with Natasha; in a conversation with her he speaks of how an old love can only be replaced by a new one. At the same time, Lezhnev gives the account of his youth and his friendship with Rudin, making for the first time the point that Rudin is “too cold” and inactive. On the next day, Natasha quizzes Rudin over his words about old and new love. Neither she, nor he confess their love for each other but in the evening, Rudin and Natasha meet again, and this time Rudin confesses his love for her; Natasha replies that she, too, loves him. Unfortunately, their conversation is overheard by Pandalevskii, who reports it to Dar’ya Mikhailovna, and she strongly disapproves of this romance, making her feelings known to Natasha. The next time Natasha and Rudin meet, she tells him that Dar’ya Mikhailovna knows of their love and disapproves of it. Natasha wants to know what plan of action is Rudin going to propose, but he does not fulfil her expectations when he says that one must “submit to destiny”. She leaves him, disappointed and sad: Rudin then leaves Dar’ya Mikhailovna's estate. Before his departure he writes two letters: one to Natasha and one to Sergei. The letter to Natasha is particularly notable in its confession of the vices of inactivity, inability to act and to take responsibility for one's actions – all the traits of a Hamlet which Turgenev later detailed in his 1860 speech. Lezhnev, meanwhile, asks Aleksandra to marry him and is accepted in a particularly fine scene. The Aftermath. Chapter Twelve and the Epilogue detail events of over two years past Rudin's arrival at Dar’ya Mikhailovna's estate. Lezhnev is happily married to Aleksandra. He arrives to give her news of Sergei's engagement to Natasha, who is said to “seem contented”. Pigasov lives with Lezhnevs, and amuses Aleksandra as he used to amuse Dar’ya Mikhailovna. A conversation which follows happens to touch on Rudin, and as Pigasov begins to make fun of him, Lezhnev stops him. He then defends Rudin's “genius” while saying that his problem is that he had no “character” in him. This, again, refers to the superfluous man's inability to act. He then toasts Rudin. The chapter ends with the description of Rudin travelling aimlessly around Russia. In the Epilogue, Lezhnev happens by chance to meet Rudin at a hotel in a provincial town. Lezhnev invites Rudin to dine with him, and over the dinner Rudin relates to Lezhnev his attempts to “act” – to improve an estate belonging to his friend, to make a river navigable, to become a teacher. In all three of this attempts Rudin demonstrated inability to adapt to the circumstances of Nicholas I's Russia, and subsequently failed, and was in the end banished to his estate. Lezhnev then appears to change his opinion of Rudin as inherently inactive, and says that Rudin failed exactly because he could never stop striving for truth. The Epilogue ends with Rudin's death at the barricades during the French Revolution of 1848; even at death he is mistaken by two fleeing revolutionaries for a Pole. Adaptations. "Rudin" was adapted for screen in 1976. The 95 minutes-long Soviet-made movie was directed by Konstantin Voynov. The cast included Oleg Yefremov, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, and Rolan Bykov.

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If Israel Lost the War If Israel Lost the War is a 1969 alternate history political novel written jointly by Robert Littell, Richard Z. Chesnoff and Edward Klein. Synopsis. The book's point of divergence is the assumption the Arab air forces on June 5, 1967 launch a surprise attack and destroy the Israeli Air Force, rather than the other way around as occurred in actual history. The Arab armies launch a lighting ground attack and, in an exact mirror image of the actual Six-Day War, conquer the entire territory of Israel by June 10, 1967. The United States, embroiled in the Vietnam War, takes no action to intervene in the Israeli-Arab war, and the same is true for every other country (except for a valiant but futile sending of some planes by the Netherlands). As Sirhan Sirhan returns home to Jordan to celebrate the conquest of Israel, Robert F. Kennedy is never assassinated and goes on to defeat Richard Nixon in the 1968 election, becoming the 38th US president (Hubert Humphrey became the 37th president in the book's alternate timeline following Lyndon Johnson's resignation in January 1968). Meanwhile, Egyptian troops capture and publicly execute Moshe Dayan in Tel Aviv. The victorious Arab armies establish new secret police units, which include former Nazi war criminals serving in advisory roles, to maintain order in the newly-occupied territory. As depicted in the book, the Palestinians get no benefit from the Arab victory and are not granted a state of their own, with Israel being partitioned between Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Also, the Palestinian refugees are not allowed to return to their pre-1948 homes despite them now being under Arab rule. The book closes with Yigal Alon, a former commander of the Palmach militia, planning a Jewish insurgency. The book is written in a semi-documentary manner, with multiple and constantly-shifting points of view characters, detailed maps, and numerous fictional quotations from the international media. It was controversial for its graphic depiction of atrocities against the Israeli Jewish population being committed by the victorious Arab armies. Golda Meir reference. According to the Israeli columnist Dan Margalit, the book owes its inception at least in part to an interview which the three authors had with Golda Meir. When they asked her some critical questions about the recently-started Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Golda answered, "You better think of what would have happened if Israel lost the war". That gave them the idea of writing a book on that theme. In the book, Meir is depicted as having escaped from Israel at the last moment and set up an Israeli government-in-exile that is headed by a fellow exilee, David Ben Gurion. Reception. The book in Hebrew translation was a bestseller in Israel itself and was used for propaganda by its government agencies and in the political debate between right and left. The journalist and peace activist Uri Avnery published in "HaOlam HaZeh" weekly an editorial strongly criticising the book as well as a review in "Life". Avnery stated that its starting point was implausible since even with its air force destroyed, Israel would not have been so quickly and totally overwhelmed. Avnery pointed out that in a considerable part of the 1947–1949 Palestine War, in which Avnery himself participated, it was the Arab side that dominated the air, but the newly-created Israeli military still won the war. Avnery also criticised the three American writers by stating, "Though their intention is to help Israel's propaganda case, their book might help foster intransigence and dangerous illusions on the Arab side". Varda Klein wrote, "Such a devastating attack does not come out of the blue. The Israeli Air Force laid meticulous plans years before 1967, and its pilots regularly held rigorous exercises to prepare. The Arabs would have had to do the same, to achieve like results... A detailed joint strategic planning by Egypt, Syria and Jordan would have been highly unlikely, given that these regimes were virtually as suspicious and hostile to each other as they were to Israel. It would have been extremely difficult to hide from Israel joint large scale exercises of the Arab air forces. A strategic rapprochement between Egypt and Jordan would have been impossible to hide, it would have greatly alarmed Israel, and the entire Middle East configuration would have been different long before June 1967; indeed, such a situation might have impelled Israel into a preemptive strike already in 1966". Jean-Claude Kaufmann of the Comité français pour la paix au Moyen-Orient (French Committee for Peace in The Middle East) remarked in 1970: "It is entirely plausible that, had Arab armies conquered Israel, they would have perpetrated terrible atrocities and imposed a very harsh occupation regime. What I find completely implausible is the assumption that even after winning and conquering Israel, the victorious Arab states would have still kept Palestinian refugees in their camps and not let them return to their lost homes. Why? The book describes the Arab victors systematically destroying all the hundreds of Israeli kibbutzim - and then just leaving desolate empty ruins in their place. Why should Nasser have done that? It would have been completely in his interest to re-establish the Palestinian villages which many of these kibbutzim displaced in the aftermath of 1948, to do it with a fanfare of worldwide publicity and with returning Palestinian refugees singing endless paeans of praise to their Egyptian benefactor. There is no conceivable reason within the book's plot for the way the Egyptian President is shown to be acting - but there is a clear and obvious reason for the three American authors to have attributed to him such conduct. Had there been scenes of joyful returning Palestinian refugees, it would have disturbed the book's stark polar dichotomy of cruel barbarous Arabs vs. Jewish Israeli innocent victims/courageous resisters. It would have intruded an element of ambiguity, a reminder to the reader that in the Middle East Conflict there are neither complete Saints not utter Demons. Obviously, these authors wanted no ambiguity...". Legacy. Though well-known and often debated in both the US and Israel, the book is by now largely forgotten. In May 2010 Israeli right-wing columnist Hagai Segal published a two-page summary of it in the Makor Rishon newspaper, proposing to his fellow-rightists to get a new edition published as part of their efforts to mobilise Israeli public opinion against the Obama Administration's Middle East peace plans. An Israeli alternate history site run by Asaf Shoval featured a variant version (in Hebrew) which begins with the same devastating Arab aerial attack, but has a new point of divergence with the Egyptians (rather than the Israelis, as in real history) attacking the and killing many of its crew. This provides President Johnson with a pretext to launch a massive American intervention and save Israel at the last moment. Israel is badly battered, having lost much of its territory and citizens and becoming in effect an American protectorate, but gradually recovers and greatly prospers economically. Earlier Kishon article. In the aftermath of the 1956 Sinai War, the Israeli satirist Ephraim Kishon published a short piece with a similar theme, entitled "How we lost the World's Sympathy" (איך איבדנו את אהדת העולם). In Kishon's alternate history, Israel neither concludes an anti-Egyptian military alliance with Britain and France, unlike actual history, nor embarks on the 1956 Sinai War. With no such alliance, France does not supply Mirage fighter jets to Israel. Egypt gets advanced jets from the Soviet Union, which gives it a decisive military advantage, which it uses to launch a devastating surprise attack on Israel in 1957. Israel is totally conquered, and Egypt goes on to depose King Hussein of Jordan and to annex his kingdom. Afterwards, the destroyed Israel gets a lot of international sympathy, but far too late to do any good. All the international community can do is keep the empty chair of the Israeli Ambassador standing in the UN General Assembly and implore President Nasser of Egypt to treat humanely a handful of Israeli refugees huddling in the ruins of Tel Aviv. Kishon's obvious conclusion was that it is better to be internationally condemned for winning than to get sympathy after losing. The article was republished after the 1967 war in a collection of articles and cartoons which Kishon published jointly with Kariel Gardosh ("Dosh"), "Sorry that we won" (סליחה שניצחנו). That was translated to English and distributed in the US and might have been known to the writers of "If Israel Lost the War".

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Ang Tundo Man May Langit Din Ang Tundo Man May Langit Din ("Even Tondo possess some Heaven") is a 1986 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Andres Cristobal Cruz. The 324-page novel was published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press. The novel involves love and romance occurring between individuals that are residing in a poverty-stricken area in Tondo, Manila in the Philippines. The social background of the individuals produces a "dramatizing effect" in presenting the Philippine experience laid out in contemporary context and setting, giving the novel a similarity in style and theme to Philippine national hero Jose Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere".

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Twice Blessed Twice Blessed, also known as Twice Blessed: A Novel, is a 1992 novel written by Filipino author Ninotchka Rosca. It won the 1993 American Book Award for “excellence in literature”. It is one of Rosca’s novels that recreated the diversity of Filipino culture (the other was "State of War"). Apart from tracing back Philippine History, Rosca also portrayed contemporary Philippine politics, delicate events, and cultural preferences through the novel. Description. Twice Blessed was described as a “comic parable” concerned about the Philippines’ status, at the time of writing, as “a nation struggling to be born.” It was published when Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos were exiled in Hawaii, USA. In this satirical novel, Rosca derided the Marcoses and exposed how some moneyed Filipino warlords preserve their status and power through clan alliances, corruption, and “fuel and favors” (i.e. bribery, sexual favors, and the like) generally known as "gasolina" in the vernacular meaning “gasoline” to “keep things running” as planned. Characters. The main characters in "Twice Blessed" are Hector Basbas, Katerina Basbas, and Teresa Tiklopluhod (her surname literally meant “fold and kneel” in Tagalog). Hector and Katerina are twins having an incestuous relationship. Katerina had a shoe collection resulting from her experiences of “humiliations” during childhood. Teresa Tiklopluhod is a provincial governor’s daughter who became a confidante of Katerina Basbas. Description. Through political tactics and societal manoeuvres, Hector and Katerina Basbas became dominant figures in the Philippines. When Hector won the Presidential elections by “buying”, the incumbent refused to relinquish the position. Hector needed to provide more “fuel” to keep things moving, a plan that required Katerina’s help, covert assistance from the United States and “strong-arm” persuasive manoeuvring. Together with Katerina, Hector was aiming to convert the Philippine democratic system into a dynastic reign of monarchs. Awards. In 1993 the Before Columbus Foundation granted her the American Book Award, for excellence in literature, for her "Twice Blessed". The Before Columbus Foundation seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre. Author. Ninotchka Rosca (born in the Philippines in 1946) is a Filipina feminist, author, journalist and human rights activist. Ninotchka Rosca is described as, "one of the major players in the saga of Filipina American writers". During the political instability during Ferdinand Marcos's rule she was arrested and held at a detention center for six months. She then spent sometime in exile in America. Much of her work is taken from her experiences during her imprisonment. Her short stories have been included in several collections including, the 1986 Best 100 Short Stories in the U.S. compiled by Raymond Carver and the Missouri Review Anthology. She went on to write "Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World", "To read Ninotchka Rosca's [latest is] not just to discover the controversial man, but to learn the political and economic history of the Philippines."

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Todas las Sangres Every Blood () is the fifth novel of the Peruvian writer José María Arguedas published in 1964. It is the author's longest and most ambitious novel, being an attempt to portray the whole of Peruvian life, by means of representations of geographic and social scenes of the entire country, although its focus is on the Andean sierra. The title alludes to the racial, regional and cultural diversity of the Peruvian nation. The novel revolves around two fundamental ideas: the danger of imperialist penetration into the country through large transnational companies, and the problem of modernization of the indigenous world. Plot. The novel starts with the suicide of Don Andres Aragon of Peralta, head of the most powerful family in the village of San Pedro de Lahuaymarca, in the mountains of Peru. His death announces the end of the feudal system that until then has been predominant in the region. Don Andres leaves two sons: Don Fermin and Don Bruno, enemies and rivals, who during the life of their father had already divided his vast property. The principal conflict revolves around the exploitation of the Apar'cora mine, discovered by Don Fermin on his lands. Don Fermin, a prototypical national capitalist, wants to exploit the mine and bring progress to the region, which his brother Don Bruno opposes. Don Bruno is a traditional landowner and fanatical Catholic, who doesn't want his tenant farmers or Indian slaves contaminated by modernity, which, according to his judgment, corrupts people. With the arrival of an international consortium - Wisther-Bozart- a dispute over control of the silver mine begins. Don Fermin cannot compete against the enormous transnational corporation, and sees himself forced to sell the mine, which then adopts the name Aparcora Mining Company. Anticipating the need for abundant water to work the mine, the company shows interest in the lands of the town and the neighboring rural communities, requiring that they be sold at ridiculously low prices; this counts on the complicity of corrupt authorities. The company acts as a disintegrating force that does everything necessary to maximize profit, without regard to the damages caused to the townspeople. Then there begins a process of unrest that leads to the mobilisation of peasants led by Rendon Willka, an Indian rebel who has lived in the capital of the country where he has learnt a lot. Under his orders uprisings explode, which are bloodily repressed by forces supporting the government, but which are the forerunners of the final rebellion. Analysis. The novel presents the image of a nation subjected to imperialist penetration and, above all, the problem of modernization of indigenous culture. Arguedas attempts to provide a comprehensive portrait of Peru by the representation of geographic and social settings throughout the country, although the narrative focus is on the sierra. The title of the novel expresses the complex national life of Peru, in which 'all bloods' intermingle and compete with each other harshly. But this fight envelops not only Peru but also an imperialist power seeking to manipulate it. The confrontation between the forces of modernity and a traditional society is the main conflict that the novel addresses. Its large question revolves around the possibility of achieving genuine national development, with the certainty that a historical era of the country has ended, and that a new homeland must be built on its ruins. The destroyed order is the old feudal order. The alternatives facing the imperialist project range from a utopian return to a feudal order, imagined by Don Bruno as a natural system presided by moral principles, to a proposal of national capitalism, as stated by Don Fermin. In the novel these options are invalidated and the moral and historical legitimacy of the other alternative, represented by the rebel Rendon Willka, is emphasized. This alternative could be summarized by his collectivist sensibility (in the social sphere), in his adherence to Quechua values (in the cultural sphere), and a cautious modernization (at both levels). Willka's project, however, has some components which are more idealistic than realistic, and contains perhaps an insurmountable failing: it is a project limited to the rural highlands, that distrusts and even rejects participation of the proletariat and calls into question the service of political parties. It is a project more cultural than social (although it brings into relief the importance of collectivist organization under the model of indigenous community), and more ethical than political. In any case, during the course of the novel a consistent reflection on many aspects of Peruvian reality unfolds: in this process, precisely because it is reflective, the novel observes the impossibility of understanding the national dynamics, made up of familiar oppositions, at the margins of the overall structure of the contemporary world. Controversy over the work. In 1965 the Institute for Peruvian Studies (Instituto de Estudios Peruanos) organized a series of roundtables to discuss the relationship between literature and sociology. The second of these, held on June 23, devoted itself to the discussion of the novel Todas las sangres, with the participation of Arguedas himself. This event was extremely important because it signified the incorporation of Arguedas' narrative into a discussion of the literature of his time. The roundtable consisted of leftist intellectuals who were admirers of Arguedas. All of them, some cautiously and others openly, criticized the work because it was thought to be a distorted version of Peruvian society: starting with the description of a caste system which had long disappeared in the whole of the Peruvian Andes, and a primitive and caricatural view of social mechanisms. These reviews were devastating for Arguedas, who, according to Mario Vargas Llosa, wrote later that night these heartbreaking lines: ... it was almost proved by two wise sociologists and an economist, [...] that my book Todas las sangres is detrimental to the country, I don't have anything to do in this world anymore. My forces have declined, I think, inevitably. Criticism. According to Vargas Llosa, the criticisms that were made regarding the work during the roundtable of June 23, 1965 would be valid from a sociological point of view. Obviously, another point of view would be an analysis of the novel as literary fiction. Vargas Llosa argues that the work is also flawed in this respect, that the description of Peruvian society is profoundly false and unconvincing, not because of distance from objective truth, but because of a lack of internal force emanating from the intricacies of the fiction. By contrast, the British critic and poet Martin Seymour-Smith praised the novel highly: "Those who by temperament reject the horrors of machinery and man's misuse of it will find rich reward in this, the most poetic of all novels about 'savages'. If Levi-Strauss is a great thinker, and he is (at his best), then what can Arguedas be? Something infinitely larger, certainly." Message. Arguedas' novel reveals his proposed solution to indigenous problems: Andean culture must not be destroyed, as part of some or other form of modernization that assimilates. Harmonious thinking with nature is accepted, in order to develop a revolutionary mindset that projects a future of well-being and freedom. The national ideal is that of multivariate Peru, with ecological, multicultural and multilingual diversity. The Peruvian nation can be seen as being more than a national project; it can be said that there are several national cores, but they are not geographically localizable. In the intellectual underworld of Peru, bound to political power, is a subsidiary Western worldview, strongly refuted and distorted by current social historical reality. Film adaptation. The film adaptation of the novel was directed by Michel Gomez in 1987. The actors Richardo Tosso, Rafael Delucchi, Pilar Brescia, Andres Alencastre, Oswaldo Sivirichi and Juan Manuel Ochoa appear in the cast.

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Daluyong Daluyong ("Tidal Wave" or "Wave") is a 1976 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Lazaro Francisco. The novel was published in Quezon City, Manila, in the Philippines by the Ateneo de Manila University Press. Plot. Daluyong begins where Francisco’s novel "Maganda pa ang Daigdig" ("The World Be Beautiful Still") ends. Lino Rivero, a former ranch worker, is given an opportunity to own a portion of land by the priest Padre Echevarria. Lino becomes an avatar who, through his efforts and good will, is able to free himself from the oppressive "tenant farmer" system. Apart from the "waves of changes" that might happen due to agrarian reform and because of the hope of the Filipino lower class for a good future, "Daluyong" tackled the "waves of forces" that prevents such changes and hopes from being realized.

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Max Havelaar Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company () is an 1860 novel by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), which played a key role in shaping and modifying Dutch colonial policy in the Dutch East Indies in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the novel, the protagonist, Max Havelaar, tries to battle against a corrupt government system in Java, which was then a Dutch colony. The novel is also famous for its opening line: "Ik ben makelaar in koffie, en woon op de Lauriergracht, Nº 37." ("I am a coffee broker, and live on the Lauriergracht, Nº 37."). Background. By the mid-nineteenth century, the colonial control of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) had passed from the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to the Dutch government due to the economic failure of the VOC. In order to increase revenue, the Dutch colonial government implemented a series of policies termed the Cultivation System (Dutch: "cultuurstelsel"), which mandated Indonesian farmers to grow a quota of commercial crops such as sugar and coffee, instead of growing staple foods such as rice. At the same time, the colonial government also implemented a tax collection system in which the collecting agents were paid by commission. The combination of these two strategies caused widespread abuse of colonial power, especially on the islands of Java and Sumatra, resulting in abject poverty and widespread starvation of the farmers. The colony was governed with a minimum of soldiers and Government officials. The former rulers maintained their absolute power and control over the natives: a quite common strategy used by many colonising countries. In addition, the Dutch state earned a fortune with the sale of opium to the natives, this opium-trade was started centuries before during the VOC-times. At that time opium was the only known effective pain killer, and a considerable percentage of the natives were addicted to it, being kept poor in this way. This was called the "opium-regime". To distinguish between smuggled and legal opium, a simple reagent was added. After discovery the smuggler could count on a severe punishment. Multatuli wrote "Max Havelaar" in protest against these colonial policies, but another goal was to seek rehabilitation for his resignation from governmental service. Despite its terse writing style, it raised the awareness of Europeans living in Europe at the time that the wealth that they enjoyed was the result of suffering in other parts of the world. This awareness eventually formed the motivation for the new Ethical Policy by which the Dutch colonial government attempted to "repay" their debt to their colonial subjects by providing education to some classes of natives, generally members of the elite loyal to the colonial government. Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer argued that by triggering these educational reforms, "Max Havelaar" was in turn responsible for the nationalist movement that ended Dutch colonialism in Indonesia after 1945, and which was instrumental in the call for decolonization in Africa and elsewhere in the world. Thus, according to Pramoedya, "Max Havelaar" is "the book that killed colonialism". In the last chapter the author announces that he will translate the book "into the few languages I know, and into the many languages I can learn." In fact, "Max Havelaar" has been translated into thirty-four languages. It was first translated into English in 1868. In Indonesia, the novel was cited as an inspiration by Sukarno and other early nationalist leaders, such as the author's Indo (Eurasian) descendant Ernest Douwes Dekker, who had read it in its original Dutch. It was not translated into Indonesian until 1972. In the novel, the story of Max Havelaar, a Dutch colonial administrator, is told by two diametrically opposed characters: the hypocritical coffee merchant Droogstoppel, who intends to use Havelaar's manuscripts to write about the coffee trade, and the romantic German apprentice Stern, who takes over when Droogstoppel loses interest in the story. The opening chapter of the book nicely sets the tone of the satirical nature of what is to follow, with Droogstoppel articulating his pompous and mercenary world-view at length. At the very end of the novel Multatuli himself takes the pen and the book culminates in a denunciation of Dutch colonial policies and a plea to king William III of the Netherlands to intervene on behalf of his Indonesian subjects. Film version. A film adaptation of the novel was released in 1976, directed by Fons Rademakers as part of a Dutch-Indonesian partnership. The film "Max Havelaar" was not allowed to be shown in Indonesia until 1987. Editions. The edition history of the book "Max Havelaar" began in the 1860s with a publication titled "Max Havelaar, of De koffi-veilingen der Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappy". During his life Dekker published six press-editions of Max Havelaar in the Netherlands, with three different publishers. In addition, Dekker made a significant contribution to the first translation of the book into English. After Dekker's death, the book was reprinted many times. The text and reprints that are found in bookstores today is sometimes based on the 4th edition from 1875, sometimes on the handwritten manuscript (also called the 0th edition), and increasingly on the fifth edition of 1881, the last to be revised by the author. The reason for this covert edition is unknown, but it is speculated it was done by De Ruyter to avoid having to pay royalties to Dekker. The number of copies is unknown. External links and text sources. (Dutch)

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Char Adhyay (novel) Char Adhyay is a political novel written in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore. It was published in 1934.  This is the last novel written by Rabindranath. It has a connection with the story of Rabindranath's "Rabibar". After the non-cooperation movement in British India, a renewed violent revolutionary effort was started in Bengal. In fact, the story is written by criticizing barbaric terrorism. Indranath, the leader of the terrorists, is as superhuman as he is cruel on the one hand. The main story of the end of Atindra and Ella's love under his direction. Filmmaking. The following films are based on Rabindranath's novel "Char Adhyay":

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When Smuts Goes When Smuts Goes is a dystopian novel by Dr. Arthur Keppel-Jones. The novel is set during a future history of South Africa, following the ascension of Afrikaner nationalists and their increasingly destructive quest for total "apartheid". It foreshadowed the fall of Jan Christiaan Smuts and his United Party administration, a rupture in ties with the British Commonwealth, and the declaration of a Second South African Republic. Presiding over the regime which follows is Obadja Bult, a dominion theologian influenced by the ideals of the former "Ossewabrandwag". His blunt authoritarian streak gives spark to racial conflict—culminating in foreign intervention and troubled majority rule. Background. As World War II draws to a close, white politics in the Union of South Africa are glaringly polarised - reflecting the struggle between Daniel Malan's Reunited National Party, whose followers demand a republic, and the United Party of Jan Smuts, who wish to retain their British monarch. Smuts' outstanding electoral victory in 1943 is fast becoming a distant memory; the Nationalists have consolidated by 1948 and go on to win Calvinia, Potchefstroom, Springs, and Caledon. United Prime Minister Oudstryder dissolves parliament in 1952, the tercentenary of Jan van Riebeeck's landing at the Cape of Good Hope. His Nationalist rivals take advantage of the occasion, organising a massive pageant in Cape Town. Speeches, processions, and gatherings mushroom at famous battlefields. British imperialism is decried as the national enemy. A wave of Afrikaner patriotism rocks South Africa as the polls are opened: Oudstryder and his pro-English colleagues are doomed. The triumphant Nationalists return 83 seats against the United Party's 56, securing a majority in every province but Natal. Accuracy of predictions. The book correctly predicted the end of the long tenure in power of the United Party of Jan Smuts and the rise to power of the National Party, followed by a rupture with the British Commonwealth and the proclamation of a second "South African Republic". In Keppel-Jones' prediction, however, the National Party institutes a totalitarian fascist-style dictatorship and completely suppresses all dissent—to a far greater degree than the actual apartheid government was to implement even in its most repressive phases. Keppel-Jones further predicts a mass exodus of South Africa's British diaspora; an uprising led by the Zulus, which is suppressed with much bloodshed; a constant state of overt and guerrilla warfare; a totally intransigent attitude by the Afrikaner leadership leading to increasing tensions with the rest of the world, culminating with an international military intervention—which leads to the toppling of the regime, followed by the killing or expulsion of the remaining white population, much of it migrating to Argentina; and an economic collapse and social degeneration, with the inexperienced and incompetent new government proving unable to maintain the political and economic structures which were handed over to them by the international community. Researcher Gary Baines compared the book's deeply pessimistic message and its looking forwards to a disastrous future to the tone of J.M. Coetzee's "Waiting for the Barbarians" several decades later in 1982.

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Little King Matty...and the Desert Island Little King Matty and the Desert Island () is a children's book by Janusz Korczak, first published in 1923. It is the sequel to "King Matt the First", depicting the exile of the young king. The psychologist writes a picture of an angry, sensitive child prince who is crowned king after the illness and death of his parents. The young king learns through life and by individual tuition from various tutors and teachers. Matty’s learning is, at first, informal and motivated by anger and a strong imagination. However, Matty’s learning style then becomes analytical and, as time goes by, he becomes a catalyst, a facilitator and a motivator. Editions. The book was first published in Polish in 1923 as "Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej". It was not translated into English until 1990. The October 1990 English edition by Joanna Pinewood Enterprises is an unabridged translation from the original, combining two stories published as "Little King Matty ...and the Desert Island" (). This edition was translated by Dr Adam Czasak and edited by Kzrysztof Bahrynowski. In 2009, Tomasz Chmielik translated the book into Esperanto and held a competition for children from Lublin in Poland to design the front cover. Plot summary. "Little King Matty...and the Desert Island" is a story about freedom, democracy, politics, travel, corruption, tyranny and reform. Matty becomes king after his father’s death: he then must learn about “etiquette” – what kings can do and what they cannot – he has to learn to interpret the lies of his adult political advisors – and diplomacy “all about telling fibs”. His efforts to bring about reform take him to war with three neighboring kingdoms who try to partition his country. He succeeds in vanquishing them and wins by treaty. However, because his country is bankrupt, the other European countries refuse to provide him with aid to build ships so that he can make his kingdom economically sustainable. So, he goes to the land of the cannibals and witch-doctors where the child king succeeds in making a treaty that saves his kingdom, much to the annoyance of some of his political advisors and two of his vanquished neighbours. The story is romantic; the daughter of the African king, Klu Klu, falls in love with Matty and smuggles herself into his kingdom. She kills a rabid wolf with her dagger, saving Matty’s life and the people of the capital and becomes the People’s Heroine. She becomes a role model for all women in Europe and Africa. She learns faster, hunts better and is Matty’s best warrior. Matty’s reforms anger his adult enemies, who secretly encourage anarchy and invade his country again. His African warriors and Princess bravely fight alongside Matty, but he is betrayed by some of his cowardly adult citizens. His three enemies partition his country and, in the manner of Napoleon, order the child King to be banished to a deserted Island. However, before this is implemented, Matty escapes from gaol and is rescued by his African Princess and her father who renegotiates Matty’s sentence. The European kings cheat and Klu Klu’s father declares war on the whites. During a few paragraphs, there are references to Europe’s colonial atrocities in Africa and how Europe relies on Africa for goods like chocolate. Matty chooses to go into exile to protect his country. However, he escapes when a swimming postal rat from Klu Klu reaches him with urgent messages; he is kidnapped by his worst and strongest enemy and hides in a maximum security prison where he is cared for and taught by the worst criminals. Later he hides his identity and goes to a school where peer pressure prevents him from doing better, until he loses his temper. He, the victim, nearly becomes a bully. It is here that he learns that this worst enemy wants to go to war against his kingdom for a third time. As anger turns to bitterness, self-analysis saves Matty; Matty uses and learns humour to prevent him becoming maudlin. Thus, he eventually regains his self-confidence and rescues his kingdom. The book ends with Matty first becoming disillusioned, then dying.

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Mastergate Mastergate is a play by Larry Gelbart, which he describes as "A Play On Words". The title refers to a fictional political scandal enacted on "Master Pictures Studios", a fictional movie company that is actually a cover for arms trading. The title of the play also references other real-life political scandals, such as Watergate and others subsequently given the suffix -gate. Plot summary. The play is set in the Sherman Adams Room at the John Mitchell Building in Washington, D.C.. The "Select Joint Congressional Committee Investigating Alleged Covert Arms Assistance to Alleged Other Americas" investigates the CIA's attempt to divert arms to Central American guerrillas through a motion picture company's high-budget action film, entitled "Tet." (a reference to the Tet Offensive) "Mastergate" is a satire on congressional investigative committee hearings that took place during the McCarthy Era, on the Watergate investigation, and on the Iran-Contra affair. In his opening address, the chairman explains that the purpose of the hearings is to find out what the president knew and if he had any idea of the affair. The satire employs many aspects of rhetoric and word-play, including puns, malapropism, mixed metaphors, tautology and Washington double-speak. The playwright said of his work that it is "First and foremost...a play about language. It's not for me to discover that politicians are corrupt or full of hot air. It's really about what they and television have done to the way we speak and the way we listen." The play uncovers aspects of the absurd in the working life of government employees; for example, it portrays a non-meeting, a non-discussion, and people being present in the minutes of the meeting despite not attending. It has been argued that several of the characters have real-life counterparts, for example, Major Manley Battle may be based on Oliver North. Performance History. "Original Broadway Run" Criterion Centre Stage Right First Preview: September 22, 1989 Opening Date: October 12, 1989 Closing Date: December 10, 1989 Previews: 23 Performances: 69 "Original Production Credits" Larry Gelbart "Writer" Michael Engler "Director" Philipp Jung "Scenic Design" Candice Donnelly "Costume Design" Stephen Strawbridge "Lighting Design" Marc Salzberg "Sound Design" The play was filmed for television in 1992. The production used the Emerald Room of the Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles as a backdrop to the hearings. The play was recorded by L.A. Theatre Works during their 1991-1992 season with a cast including Walter Matthau and Harold Gould. Reviews of "Mastergate". Positive reviews included that of Jack Kroll in "Newsweek", who wrote, "If George Orwell were a gag writer, he could have written "Mastergate". Larry Gelbart's scathingly funny takeoff on the Iran-Contra hearings is a spiky cactus flower in the desert of American political theatre." Similarly, Frank Rich of "The New York Times" wrote, "When "Mastergate" is funny, it is very funny. When it is not, it still stands up for a patriotic integrity beyond the understanding of the clowns who parade across its national stage." By contrast, Howard Kissel of the "Daily News", wrote "If you think the title is funny, you'll probably enjoy "Mastergate." If you find it adolescent, which I'm afraid I do, stay home and read Mark Twain on politics." Likewise, Linda Winer of "Newsday" wrote, ""Mastergate" is a one-joke extended sketch that, unfortunately, never manages the leap to dramatic - much less philosophical - revelation of much we didn't already know. Nevertheless, the joke is a very good one, performed with deadpan delight by deft imitators." Adaptation. A film was made in 1992 based on the play. The film was directed by Michael Engler and written by Larry Gelbart and produced by David Jablin.

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Political drama A political drama can describe a play, film or TV program that has a political component, whether reflecting the author's political opinion, or describing a politician or series of political events. Dramatists who have written political dramas include Aaron Sorkin, Robert Penn Warren, Sergei Eisenstein, Bertolt Brecht, Jean-Paul Sartre, Howard Brenton, Caryl Churchill, and Federico García Lorca. Theatre. In the history of theatre, there is long tradition of performances addressing issues of current events, especially those central to society itself. The political satire performed by the comic poets at the theatres had considerable influence on public opinion in the Athenian democracy. Those earlier Western dramas, arising out of the polis, or democratic city-state of Greek society, were performed in amphitheaters, central arenas used for theatrical performances, religious ceremonies and political gatherings; these dramas had a ritualistic and social significance that enhanced the relevance of the political issues being examined. Shakespeare is an author of political theatre according to some academic scholars, who observe that his history plays examine the machinations of personal drives and passions determining political activity and that many of the tragedies such as "King Lear" and "Macbeth" dramatize political leadership and complexity subterfuges of human beings driven by the lust for power. For example, they observe that class struggle in the Roman Republic is central to "Coriolanus". Historically in Soviet Russia, the term political theatre was sometimes referred to as agitprop theatre or simply agitprop, after the Soviet term agitprop. Recent political drama. In later centuries, political theatre has sometimes taken a different form. Sometimes associated with cabaret and folk theatre, it has offered itself as a theatre 'of, by, and for the people'. In this guise, political theatre has developed within the civil societies under oppressive governments as a means of actual underground communication and the spreading of critical thought. Often political theatre has been used to promote specific political theories or ideals, for example in the way agitprop theatre has been used to further Marxism and the development of communist sympathies. Russian agitprop theater was noted for its cardboard characters of perfect virtue and complete evil, and its coarse ridicule. Marxist theatre. But Marxist theatre wasn't always this directly agitational. Bertolt Brecht developed a highly elaborate and sophisticated new aesthetic—epic theater—to address the spectator in a more rational way. Brecht's aesthetics have influenced political playwrights throughout the world, especially in India and Africa. Augusto Boal developed the Brechtian form of "Lehrstücke" into his internationally acclaimed "Theatre of the Oppressed", with its techniques of 'forum theatre' and 'invisible theatre', to further social change. Boal's work in this area has contributed to the emergence of the Theatre for Development movement across the world. In the sixties playwrights like Peter Weiss adopted a more 'documentary' approach towards political theatre, following on from the example of Erwin Piscator in the twenties. Weiss wrote plays closely based on historical documents like the proceedings of the Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt. Realism in theatre. Less radical versions of political theatre have become established within the mainstream modern repertory - such as the realist dramas of Arthur Miller ("The Crucible" and "All My Sons"), which probe the behavior of human beings as social and political animals. Feminist theatre. A new form of political theatre emerged in the twentieth century with feminist authors like Elfriede Jelinek or Caryl Churchill, who often make use of the non-realistic techniques detailed above.. During the 1960s and 1970s, new theatres emerged addressing women's issues. These theatres went beyond producing feminist plays, but also sought to give women opportunities and work experience in all areas of theatrical production which had heretofore been dominated by men. In addition to playwright, producers, and actors, there were opportunities for women electricians, set designers, musical director, stage managers, etc. Brechtian theatre. The Living Theatre, created by Judith Malina and her husband Julian Beck in 1947, which had its heyday in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War, is a primary example of politically oriented Brechtian performance art in the United States. Their original productions of Kenneth Brown's "The Brig" (c. 1964), also filmed, and of Jack Gelber's controversial play "The Connection" and its 1961 film rely upon and illustrate the dramaturgy of Brechtian alienation effect ("Verfremdungseffekt") that most political theatre uses to some extent, forcing the audience to take a "critical perspective" on events being dramatized or projected on screen(s) and building on aspects of the Theatre of Cruelty, which developed from the theory and practice of French early surrealist and proto-absurdist Antonin Artaud. American regional theatre. In American regional theatre, a politically oriented social orientation occurs in Street theatre, such as that produced by the San Francisco Mime Troupe and ROiL. The Detroit Repertory Theatre has been among those regional theaters at the forefront of political comedy, staging plays like Jacob M. Appel's Arborophilia, in which a lifelong Democrat prefers that her daughter fall in love with a poplar tree instead of a Republican activist. In 2014, Chicago's Annoyance Theater produced Good Morning Gitmo: a one-act play by Mishu Hilmy and Eric Simon which lampoons the US Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay. English political theatre. Kitchen sink realism or kitchen sink drama was a movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film, and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as "angry young men" who were disillusioned with modern society. It used a style of social realism to depict the lives of working class Britons, and to explore controversial social and political issues ranging from abortion to homelessness. The film "It Always Rains on Sunday" (1947) is a precursor of the genre, and John Osborne's play "Look Back in Anger" (1956) is an example of an early play in this genre. The Iraq War is the focus of some recent British political drama; for example, "Stuff Happens", by David Hare. David Edgar and Mark Ravenhill also satirize contemporary socio-political realities in their recent dramatic works. Banner Theatre in Birmingham, England, in the United Kingdom, is an example of a specific kind of political theatre called Documentary theatre. Scottish political theatre. John McGrath, founder of the Scottish popular theatre company , argued that "the theatre can never 'cause' a social change. It can articulate pressure towards one, help people celebrate their strengths and maybe build their self-confidence… Above all, it can be the way people find their voice, their solidarity and their collective determination." Television. Television series that have been classified as political dramas include "The West Wing", "Borgen", "Boss", "Jack and Bobby", "", "Commander in Chief", "House of Cards" (UK and US versions), "Madam Secretary", "Designated Survivor", "Spin", "Ingobernable", "Scandal", "Billions", "The Looming Tower", and "The Mechanism". "The Good Wife" can also be considered a political drama, especially in its critically acclaimed second season and fifth season. Races for political office, including state's attorney, governor, and even a Presidential run, move in and out of the show's narrative and the story of its main character, Alicia Florrick. However, Alicia's primary profession as a litigator for the most part takes precedence in the narrative, and so the show more often focuses on her cases and related office politics, making it primarily a legal drama. Film. There have been notables films that have been labeled as political dramas such as "Thirteen Days". A famous literary political drama which later made the transition to film was Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men".

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Building the Wall Building the Wall is a play written by Pulitzer and Tony Award winning writer, Robert Schenkkan, in October, 2016, right before Donald Trump won the 2016 United States presidential election. This play is a dystopian fiction on the potential consequences of the incendiary racial rhetoric of the then Republican candidate on American immigration policy. Plot Summary. The play consists of two characters, Rick and Gloria. Rick, the former head of a private detention center for illegal immigrants in West Texas, has been arrested and convicted of serious but (for the audience) unspecified crimes, and is awaiting sentencing. Gloria, an African-American historian, is the first person to whom Rick has granted an interview. A cat and mouse game ensues as Gloria tries to get Rick to explain what really happened under his watch and who should bear responsibility. Robert Schenkkan wrote this play in "white hot fury". While the plot of Building The Wall concerns a fictional crime against humanity set against the backdrop of immigration policies on the southern border, the thematic concern is the slippery moral slope by which otherwise well-intentioned people gradually find themselves crossing legal and moral lines until tragedy ensues. Characters. Rick is a middle-aged, white man from central Texas who served in the Army as part of the Military Police. Upon returning to the States, he married, and began a career in private law enforcement, eventually becoming head of a private detention center in West Texas. Self-declared apolitical, he became a supporter of Donald Trump during the campaign, feeling that in this candidate he had found a new kind of politician who understood how the middle-class had suffered under politics as usual. He is proud of his roots, denies any taint of racism, and believes that he has, to some extent, been set-up by the "powers that be." Gloria is an African-American woman, also from the South, who is a rising star as a historian in academic circles. As a historian, her focus has been on what she calls "hinge points of history," turning points that profoundly shape events. She wrestles with the question of what sets these events in motion? A Great Man on a White Horse? Hegelian cycles? Or ordinary people in a moment of decision. Gloria believes that the country is in one of those moments right now and that understanding Rick, and what he did, is critical to understanding where we are as a country. Production. The play opened in Los Angeles on March 18, 2017 directed by Michael Michetti as part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premier with additional simultaneous productions at the Curious Theater (CO), the Forum Theater (Washington, DC), Borderlands Theater (AZ), and the City Theater (Fl). The Los Angeles production was extended twice and ran for six months. It opened in New York on May 21, 2017 as a commercial production at New World Stages in New York City, for a predetermined run lasting through July 9, 2017. The director was Ari Edelson, with sets by Antje Ellermann, music by Basrt Fasbender. and lighting by Tyler Micoleau; "Rick" was played by James Badge Dale, and "Gloria" by Tamara Tunie. The play is available in print in an acting edition published by Dramatists Play Service as "Building the Wall", and in a trade paperback edition as "Building the Wall: The Play and Commentary" with afterwords by Douglas S. Massey , Julian E. Zelize, and Timothy Patrick McCarthy (New York : Arcade Publishing, 2017 ) Reception. As would be expected of such a controversial play, critical reception varied dramatically. Charles McNulty of the LA Times declared, “Step by step, Schenkkan gets us to see the way the collapse of institutions leads to the collapse of morality and the rule of law. ‘Building the Wall’ conjures what appears to be a worst-case scenario, though who would dare presume to know what the worst-case scenario even is anymore?” Jesse Green of the "New York Times" found the play "too becalmed to be agitprop. It’s just propaganda — by which I mean that it soothes instead of arouses." Frank Rizo for "Variety" found it a "hot-off-the-laptop scorcher" with a "a hold-your-breath inevitability"

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Ex Machina (comics) Ex Machina is an American creator-owned comic book series, created by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris and published by DC Comics under the Wildstorm imprint. The series details the life of Mitchell Hundred (also known as the Great Machine), the world's first and only superhero, who, in the wake of his actions on 9/11, is elected mayor of New York City. The story is set during Hundred's term in office, and interwoven with flashbacks to his past as the Great Machine. Through this, the series explores both the political situations in which Hundred finds himself as well as the mysteries surrounding his superpowers. Publication history. "Ex Machina" launched in 2004 as part of DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. The series ended in August 2010 with issue fifty. Development. According to Vaughan, ""Ex Machina" was about trying to make sense of the world after watching from the roof of my apartment in Brooklyn as these buildings fell, and trying to make sense of politics and this concept of heroism and whether that's a real thing or just something we impose on people. That was all born right out of that day." Vaughan has also said that the comic was "born out of my anger with what passes for our current political leadership (on both sides of the aisle)". Although the series explores real-world contemporary politics, Vaughan stated that he prefers not to discuss political themes overtly. The title of the comic comes from the Latin phrase "deus ex machina", and is also a reference to Hundred's superhero persona, the Great Machine, in that he is now an 'ex-Machine'. In the first issue, Mitchell explains that he chose the name "Great Machine" based on a quote about society by Thomas Jefferson. Synopsis. Ex Machina focuses on story of civil engineer Mitchell Hundred, alternating between the past and the present. The plot is centred on Hundred's current life as the mayor of New York City, with flashbacks to his prior life as "The Great Machine", the world's first and only super hero. Hundred has the ability to communicate directly with machines, which he used to prevent the fall of the second tower in the 9/11 attacks. Early life and "The Great Machine". Mitchell Hundred was born in 1968 to Thomas and Martha. Early in his childhood, his mother killed his father in self-defence. Thirty years later, Hundred was caught in an explosion from an unknown device at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. After the accident, he discovers that he is able to control and communicate with machinery in the hospital. After being released from the hospital, he is robbed in a convenience store, which leads him to experiment with the use of his powers. In the year 2000, Hundred decides to become the world's first superhero "The Great Machine", after talking to his friend Ivan "Kremlin" Tereshkov. In March 2001, the Great Machine learns that his home-made ray gun has the power to open an inter-dimensional portal. That same time, the Great Machine meets a man named Jack Pherson, who has the ability to control and communicate with animals. Pherson learns that Hundred is the Great Machine, and plans a multi-pronged attack against him. This culminates in one final battle where Pherson is presumed dead after a building collapses on him. Around this time, Monica first sees the Great Machine during his efforts to fight crime, and starts to become infatuated with him from a distance. That summer, Hundred decides to run for mayor after talking to David Wylie, and announces his candidacy on July 4 by unmasking and effectively retiring as The Great Machine. Mitchell gives up his helmet and jetpack to the NSA, after meeting with one of their cryptologists, Jackson Georges. On September 11, 2001, the Great Machine stops United Flight 175 before it crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center. This helps him secure the election and become Mayor of New York City, after spending election day under surveillance in a sensory deprivation tank to ensure he could not manipulate the election with his powers. Mayoralty of New York City. Mitchell Hundred is inaugurated as Mayor of New York City on January 9, 2002, and the comic book series begins with his first days in office. Hundred survives an assassination attempt, where he discovers that a bow-and-arrow is outside of his control with his powers. This parallels the rise of Connie Georges, who develops psychosis due to exposure to the fragment of circuit board that gave Mitchell Hundred his powers. Connie stabs herself with the fragment and cuts her left arm off, then murders and mutilates her husband, daughter, and family dog. She gains Hundred-esque powers and moves to the Manhattan sewers, wearing a hazard protection suit and spray-painting glyphs that resemble the one found on the fragment. She eventually confronts Hundred by infiltrating Gracie Mansion, implying that Hundred is a Christ-figure who should spread his 'gospel'. Hundred is forced to kill her in self defense. Later that year, a comic book store owner named Leto is inspired to become a super hero, called "Automaton". He is thwarted the next day by Kremlin, who destroys Leto's armor. Around this time, Hundred learns the truth about his father's death from his mother Martha. The second year of his administration begins with a terrorist gas attack during an anti-war demonstration, leaving one of the Mayor's aides in a coma. Police Commissioner Angotti works with Hundred (in disguise) to apprehend the man responsible for the attacks, while his aide Journal Moore finally succumbs to the ricin gas and dies. Months later, Hundred meets Journal's sister January for the first time. On August 14, 2003, the Northeast Blackout of 2003 is accidentally caused by Augustyn Zeller, a traveler from an alternate timeline. During the blackout, Hundred is unable to use his powers. The next day, Hundred confronts Zeller and forcibly returns him to his own timeline, while Zeller leaves him with an ominous warning. The year ends with Mitchell Hundred and his best friend Rick Bradbury travelling to Vatican City at the invitation of Pope John Paul II. During their private meeting, a Russian agent attempts to mind-control Hundred into murdering the pope. The pope helps Mitchell have an epiphany with "God", helping him overcome his conditioning. After the ordeal, Mitchell tells the pope that "God" told him he will be the President of the United States. By the summer of 2004, Mitchell Hundred is asked to give the keynote address at the 2004 Republican National Convention. By this time, Monica has become the masked adventurer named Trouble, emboldened by the story of Hundred as The Great Machine. She disrupts the multi-day convention by BASE jumping from the remaining World Trade Center tower, and writing graffiti on the Empire State Building. This climaxes with Trouble breaking into City Hall to meet Mitchell Hundred. The year ends with Hundred announcing that he will not run for re-election. As a result of a rash of animal attacks, Mitchell Hundred becomes concerned that Jack Pherson is back. He puts on a mask and enters the sewers to hunt for Pherson. In the sewers, Hundred encounters an automaton. The automaton criticizes him for misusing his powers, which it states were intended to prepare the Earth for invasion. Meanwhile, journalist Suzanne Padilla is exposed to a "white box" built by Hundred; she gains the ability to influence and control human minds and memories, as well as enhanced strength, speed, and the ability to fly. As Hundred's term comes to an end, he finds himself confronted with Suzanne Padilla in April 2005. Padilla attacks Mitchell Hundred and dumps him in the East River. She then steals Hundred's dimensional portal-opening device from his mother Martha and kills her in the process. Suzanne activates the portal-opening device where a hell-like dimension is seen & attempts to throw January into the portal to make sure the forces of hell can come safely. Hundred dons the Great Machine costume for the last time to battle Suzanne, revealing that the supposed "jammer" for his powers never really worked. He pushes her through the inter-dimensional portal before it closes. Before the police arrive, he and Bradbury switch places. Bradbury takes criminal responsibility to protect his best friend, the Mayor. Federal politics and series ending. After declining to run for re-election, Hundred goes on to become the United States ambassador to the United Nations. Hundred reveals his final act as Mayor on September 1, 2006, with the rebuilding of the Twin Towers to inspire New York and the world. A year later, Mitchell has a horrifying vision revealing that there are multiple versions of him having conquered several realities & and will never stop trying ways to invade his, as they are all "together". Later, having spent a year in prison and with his family abandoning him, a drunken and disheveled Bradbury comes to Hundred, revealing that he's always been in love with him. When a stunned Hundred pushes him away, noting that his friend is drunk, a furious Bradbury punches him and leaves him for good. In January 2008, Kremlin summons Hundred to his home, threatening to release Suzanne's files indicating Hundred used his powers to fix the mayoral election, determined to keep Mitchell a hero to New York. Mitchell refuses, saying he can do more to help the world as President. Kremlin initially threatens to shoot Mitchell, but then turns his gun on himself. Instead of trying to stop him, Mitchell uses his powers to make the gun go off, killing Kremlin. Hundred looks back his four years in office, from 2002 through "godforsaken 2005", with a look of dejection. It is revealed on the final issue that he was actually talking to the jetpack he used to wear during his time as The Great Machine. On the final pages, we learn that Hundred lives in Number One Observatory Circle as the Vice President of the United States under President John McCain. As he looks at a picture of his former friends, he pronounces the last words of the series: "Fade to black". Collected editions. "Ex Machina" has been collected in the following trade paperbacks: In addition, the series has also been released in deluxe hardcovers, the first of which was released on July 15, 2008. In March 2020, the first of two compendium volumes was released, with the second to be published in February 2021: Finally, the entire series has been released in a one volume omnibus hardcover edition. Reception and awards. Upon the release of the first series, IGN gave the series positive reviews. "Brian Vaughan uses "Ex Machina" to examine the water cooler topics of the moment, such as gay marriage, but also attempts to understand heroism in America's new era...What's most impressive about Vaughan's work is that his four monthly books are very different, not only thematically, but with cadence, pacing and dialogue." "Ex Machina" won the 2005 Eisner Award for Best New Series. In "Cultures of War in Graphic Novels", Tatiana Prororkova and Nimrod Tal suggest that protagonist Mitchell Hundred is a stand-in for the author's view on the Iraq War at the time. Analyzing Hundred's reaction to the Iraq War protests, "writer Brian Vaughan appeared to believe, as Hundred did, that the 'only people in the country opposing an Iraq invasion' were peaceniks [and that] opposition to the Iraq War, and the country's foreign policy, was foolish in the extreme." Film. On 14 July 2005, New Line Cinema announced that they picked up the rights to make a film adaptation. On 17 January 2020, it was announced that Oscar Isaac would produce and star as Hundred in a film adaptation. The film is set to be retitled "The Great Machine" in order to avoid confusion with the film "Ex Machina" and Isaac's previous involvement in said film.

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Al-Nadirah The medieval story of al-Nadirah is about the fall of Hatra and its princess, who fell in love with the young king Shapur I while he was besieging the city. This partially fictional narrative is recorded in Persian and Arabic sources of the early Islamic period, and some of its elements inspired some modern stories. Its general theme has common features with some Greek and Roman legends. Plot. According to early Islamic traditions, al-Nadirah ( "al-Naḍīrah"; "Nazirah") was the daughter of al-Dayzan or Satirun (Sanatruq II), the king of Araba. She betrayed the fortified capital, Hatra, to the Persian king Shapur I after seeing and falling in love with him while he was besieging the city. She did this by intoxicating her father and the guards of the city gates, or by revealing to the enemy the talisman on which the city's ownership depended. Shapur I captured and destroyed Hatra and killed its king. He departed with al-Nadirah and married her at Ayn al-Tamr. One night al-Nadirah could not sleep, complaining that her bed is too rough for her. It then turned out that a myrtle leaf was stuck in her skin and was irritating her. Astonished by her softness, Shapur I asked her how did her father bring her up, and she described how well he treated her. Shapur I realizes al-Nadirah's ingratitude towards her father and has her executed in a brutal manner. Sources. The story is mentioned in Arabic and Persian literature and the poetry of the early Islamic period, including al-Tabari's "Tarikh al-Tabari", Mirkhond's "Rawzat as-Safa"', Ibn Khallikan's "Wafayāt al-Aʿyān", and Ferdowsi's "Shahnama", where she is recorded as "Mālikah" (), daughter of king Tā'ir (), while the Persian king is Shapur II, instead of Shapur I. Analysis. According to Theodor Nöldeke, al-Tabari's story is derived from the Greek tale of Scylla and her father Nisos. Some consider it as a Middle Eastern version of the Tarpeia theme. The theme of Al-Nadirah's legend was used in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea" and Ahmed Shawqi's "Waraqat al-As" ("The Myrtle Leaf").

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Yahiya Emerick Yahiya Emerick is a former President of the Islamic Foundation of North America, vice-principal at an Islamic school, and a Muslim author. He has written several published articles and works of fiction. Life. Emerick was born into an American Protestant Christian family, and converted to Islam in 1989 while a freshman at Michigan State University. He later obtained a graduate degree in history. Emerick has served as a Muslim lecturer, educator, prayer leader, and author. He founded Amirah Publishing in 1992, in order to further his goal of publishing American-oriented literature on Islam. Emerick's "Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam" has been distributed worldwide by Alpha Books. From 1998 until 2008 his books were all published by Noorart Inc.

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Leila Aboulela Leila Aboulela (; born 1964) is a fiction writer of Sudanese origin, who lives in Great Britain and writes in English. She grew up in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, and has mainly lived in Aberdeen, Scotland, since 2012. Her most recent books are the novel "Bird Summons" (2019) and the short-story collection "Elsewhere, Home," which was the winner of the 2018 Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award. Her novel "The Kindness of Enemies" (2015) was inspired by the life of Imam Shamil who united the tribes of the Caucasus to fight against Russian Imperial expansion. Aboulela's 2011 novel, "Lyrics Alley", was Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards and short-listed for a Regional Commonwealth Writers Prize. She is also the author of the novels "The Translator" (a "New York Times" 100 Notable Book of the Year) and "Minaret". All three novels were long-listed for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award. Leila Aboulela won the Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story "The Museum", included in the collection "Coloured Lights", which went on to be short-listed for the Macmillan/Silver PEN award. Aboulela's work has been translated into several languages and included in publications such as "Harper's Magazine", "Granta", "The Washington Post" and "The Guardian". BBC Radio has adapted her work extensively and broadcast a number of her plays, including "The Insider", "The Mystic Life" and the historical drama "The Lion of Chechnya". The five-part radio serialization of her 1999 novel "The Translator" was short-listed for the RIMA (Race In the Media Award). According to the Scottish Book Trust, "Leila Aboulela's work is characterised by its distinctive exploration of identity, migration and Islamic spirituality." Personal life. Born in 1964 in Cairo, Egypt, to an Egyptian mother and a Sudanese father, Aboulela moved at the age of six weeks to Khartoum, Sudan, where she lived continuously until 1987. As a child she attended the Khartoum American School and the Sisters' School, a private Catholic high school, where she learned English. She later attended the University of Khartoum, graduating in 1985 with a degree in Economics. Aboulela was awarded an M.Sc. and an MPhil degree in statistics from the London School of Economics. Her thesis was on Stock and flow models for the Sudanese educational system. In 1990 Aboulela moved to Aberdeen with her husband and children, a move she cites as the inspiration for her first novel, "The Translator". Aboulela began writing in 1992 while working as a lecturer in Aberdeen College and later as a research assistant in Aberdeen University. Between 2000 and 2012, Aboulela lived in Jakarta, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha. In 2012, she returned to live in Aberdeen. Aboulela is a devout Muslim, and her faith informs much of her written work. Literary career. She was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000 for her short story "The Museum", included in her collection of short stories "Coloured Lights". Her novel "The Translator" was nominated for the Orange Prize and was chosen as a "Notable Book of the Year" by "The New York Times" in 2006. Her second novel, "Minaret", was nominated for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award. Her third novel, "Lyrics Alley", is set in the Sudan of the 1950s and was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011. Lyrics Alley was the Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize – Europe and S.E. Asia. Aboulela cites Arab authors Tayeb Salih, Naguib Mahfouz and Ahdaf Soueif, as well as Jean Rhys, Anita Desai, and Doris Lessing, as her literary influences. She also acknowledges the influence of Scottish writers, such as Alan Spence and Robin Jenkins. Among her works, her second novel "Minaret" (2005) has drawn the most critical attention. "Minaret" signaled Aboulela's arrival as an influential member of a new wave of British Muslim writers. Her collection of short stories "Elsewhere, Home" won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2018. Her work has been translated into several languages. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology "New Daughters of Africa", edited by Margaret Busby.

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Ahmed Ali (writer) Ahmed Ali (1 July 1910 in Delhi – 14 January 1994 in Karachi) () was a Pakistani novelist, poet, critic, translator, diplomat and scholar. A pioneer of the modem Urdu short story, his works include the short story collections: "Angarey" (Embers), 1932; "Hamari Gali" (Our Lane), 1940; "Qaid Khana" (The Prison-house), 1942; and "Maut Se Pehle" (Before Death), 1945. His other writings include "Twilight in Delhi" (1940), his first novel in the English language. Biography. Born in Delhi, British India, Ahmed Ali was educated at Aligarh Muslim University and Lucknow University; in the latter "having achieved the highest marks in English in the history of the university." From 1932 to 1946, he taught at the leading Indian universities including Allahabad University and his alma mater in Lucknow. He also joined the Bengal Senior Educational Service as professor and head of the English Department at Presidency College, Calcutta (1944–47) and was the BBC's Representative and Director in India during World War II, from 1942 to 1945. Following that, he was the British Council Visiting Professor to Nanjing University, as appointed by the British government of India. In 1948, when he tried to return home after the Partition, K. P. S. Menon (then India's ambassador to China) would not allow it because Ali had not indicated his preferences as a government employee; that is, whether to remain in India or transfer to Pakistan. As a result, he was forced to go to Pakistan. In 1948, he moved to Karachi. Later, he was appointed Director of Foreign Publicity for the Pakistani Government. At the behest of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, he joined the Pakistan Foreign Service in 1950. According to custom, files were drawn to determine the country of assignment. Ali's tile was blank, so he chose China and became Pakistan's first envoy to the new People's Republic. He established formal diplomatic relations that same year. He also helped to establish an embassy in Morocco. Literary career. Ahmed Ali started his literary career at a young age and became a co-founder of the All-India Progressive Writers' Movement along with the writer Sajjad Zaheer who had become well known by the publication of "Angaaray" (Embers) in 1932. It was a collection of short stories in the Urdu language and was a bitter critique of middle-class Muslim values in British India. In addition to Ali, it included stories by three of his friends; Mahmud al-Zafar, Sajjad Zaheer and Rashid Jahan. This book was later banned by the British Government of India in March 1933. Shortly afterward, Ali and Zafar announced the formation of a "League of Progressive Authors", which was later to expand and become the All-India Progressive Writers' Association. Ali presented his paper "Art Ka Taraqqi-Pasand Nazariya" (A Progressive View of Art) in its inaugural conference in 1936. Ali achieved international fame with his first novel written in English "Twilight in Delhi", which was published by the Hogarth Press in London in 1940. This novel, as its title implies, describes the decline of the Muslim aristocracy with the advance of the British colonialism in the early 20th century. "Al-Quran, A Contemporary Translation" (Princeton University Press, Oxford University Press & Akrash Publishing) is his most notable contribution in the field of translation. According to the book's description it is "approved by eminent Islamic scholars", and "it has come to be recognized as one of the best existing translations of the holy Quran." Other languages he translated from, apart from Arabic and Urdu, included Indonesian and Chinese.

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Samina Ali Samina Ali is an American author and activist. She serves as the curator of "Muslima: Muslim Women’s Art and Voices," a global, virtual exhibition for the International Museum of Women (IMOW), now part of Global Fund for Women. She is the co-founder of American Muslim feminist organization "Daughters of Hajar". Her debut novel, "Madras on Rainy Days", was awarded the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger award from France and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. She is a blogger for The Huffington Post and Daily Beast. Bibliography. Samina Ali wrote "Madras on Rainy Days", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004, Awards and recognition. In 2004, Samina received the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award in fiction. "Madras on Rainy Days" was awarded the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger award in 2005, and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award in fiction. In July 2004, Madras on Rainy Days was chosen as a best debut novel of the year by Poets & Writers magazine. In 2017, she held a public intervention titled "What does the Quran really say about a Muslim woman's hijab?" at the Tedx of the University of Nevada. By 2020 the video had been viewed more than 7 million times.

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Jamilah Kolocotronis Linda "Jamilah" Kolocotronis is an American Muslim writer and former educator in American Islamic schools. Of Greek origin, she converted to Islam at the age of 23, and she has published several Islamic fiction novels as well as her doctoral dissertation. Kolocotronis changed her first name to Jamilah when she became Muslim in 1980. Biography. Religious conversion. After reading the Quran "looking for mistakes and inconsistencies" she found none and converted to Islam in July 1980 (Ramadan 19, 1400), and changed her name to Jamilah. Books. Kolocotronis’ first book published in 1990, "Islamic Jihad: An Historical Perspective" is her only non-fiction title. She is also featured in a book about female American converts to Islam, "Daughters of Another Path". Kolocotronis' first Islamic fiction novel, "Innocent People", was written after the September 11 attacks as a reaction to the proliferation of misinformation about Muslims in America. The themes of the book include anti-Muslim actions and sentiments targeted at the characters, as well as the emotional turmoil felt by individual Muslims who were being associated with the acts of the terrorist. Her subsequent novels explore other challenges routinely faced by Muslims in America, especially converts to Islam. Kolocotronis’ "Echoes Series" is the second series of Islamic fiction novels to be written in English.

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Islamic fiction Islamic fiction is a genre of fiction. Islamic fiction works expound and illustrate an Islamic world view, put forth some explicit Islamic lessons in their plot and characterizations, or serve to make Muslims visible. Islamic fiction is different than Muslim fiction, which may refer to any and all works of fiction produced by Muslims. Islamic fiction established. While fiction has been produced throughout the entirety of Muslim history (such as One Thousand and One Nights, the term "Islamic fiction" has not been used until recently. In 2005 and 2006 the Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA), a professional Muslim organization based in the US with an International membership, took on the work of defining Islamic fiction and determining the criteria to establish it as a fiction subcategory of adult and juvenile fiction. The membership then began the process of identifying published Islamic fiction books that were at that time described as Muslim authored books or children's books in the Muslim book industry. This was done because so many books were getting lost in the previously established classification methods from the BISAC system, that a need for establishing a clear and distinct classification of specialization for this style of literature was realized, and thereby action taken towards a unification of the definition. Islamic fiction defined. Islamic fiction refers to creative, imaginative, non-preachy fiction books written by Muslims and marketed primarily to Muslims. Islamic fiction may be marketed to mainstream markets as well. The content of these books will likely incorporate some religious content and themes, and may include non-fictionalized historical or factual Islamic content with or without direct reference to the Qur'an or the Sunnah of Mohammed. The stories may also include modern, real life situations and moral dilemmas. Authors of Islamic fiction intend for readers to learn something positive about Islam when they read Islamic fiction stories. Islamic fiction cannot include harmful content: vulgar language, sexually explicit content, un-Islamic practices that are not identified as un-Islamic, or content that portrays Islam in a negative way. Issues which may impact Muslim evaluation of Islamic fiction story content. While Islamic knowledge presented in Islamic fiction may be taken directly from the Qur'an and traditions of Muhammad, as well as from Islamic history, not all of the Islamic content in these books will be considered factual or acceptable by all Muslim readers. This is due to differences between a Muslim reader and the writers, editors, and publishers with respect to personal practices, beliefs and knowledge, as well as the influence of his school of thought, culture, and tradition. Determining the accuracy and permissibility of Islamic content is the responsibility of every adult Muslim reader. This may differ according to individual differences in school of thought and practice. All Muslim parents, guardians, teachers, and school administrators must determine whether a book's content is halal for their children and students. This Islamic Reminder holds true for all materials a Muslim reads. Emergence as a literary form. Currently Islamic fiction is not recognized as a category by the Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) coding system; however works from other mainstream fiction genres are found to meet the criteria. For example, Leila Abouzeid’s "The Year of The Elephant" (Arabic version 1983, English translation 1989), the first work written by a Moroccan woman to be translated to English, has been identified as falling into the sub-categories of being both a feminist novel, and because of its depiction of the protagonist and other characters practicing Islam, qualifying as Islamic fiction. Amongst the first wave of Islamic fiction (as defined here) written in English specifically for Muslim audiences was juvenile fiction, including the series "Invincible Abdullah" originally published from 1993-1995 by Aziza and Uthman Hutchinson, and the "Ahmad Deen Series" (1996) by Yahiya Emerick. The first two English language series of Islamic fiction novels written for teens and adults is Umm Zakiyyah’s "Tamika Douglass Trilogy" beginning with "If I Should Speak" (2001) and the "Echo Series" written by Jamilah Kolocotronis beginning with "Echoes" (2006). Kolocotronis’ first Islamic fiction title, "Innocent People" was self-published in 2003. In 2004, Irving Karchmar published the Sufi novel, "Master of the Jinn". Linda D. Delgado, prolific author of Islamic fiction in addition to other various works, began writing and publishing the award-winning "Islamic Rose" series in 2005, with the latest edition of this series last published in early 2012. Subgenres. Works of Islamic fiction have been written in several fiction genres. Maryam "Umm Juwayriyah" Sullivan's teen/adult novel "The Size of a Mustard Seed" (2009) is the first known Urban Islamic fiction title. Najiyah Diana Helwani's juvenile Islamic fiction title "Sophia's Journal: Time Warp 1857" (2008) has been classified as both a historical fiction novel as well as science fiction. The seminal juvenile fiction series "Invincible Abdullah" and "Ahmad Deen" are both written in mystery styles. MuslimMatters.org, a popular multi-author Muslim blog, has published a series of genre-blending novels by Wael Abdelgawad that draw from the Islamic fiction, action, mystery and thriller categories. Short stories. Some Islamic fiction shorts can be found amongst other works in mainstream or special-interest anthologies, such as collections of Arab or South Asian writers, but very few anthologies and venues exclusively feature Islamic fiction shorts and poetry. The Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA) has produced two anthology titles of Islamic fiction and poetry, "Many Poetic Voices, One Faith" (2008) and "Many Voices, One Faith II – Islamic Fiction Stories" (2009). IWA also produces a quarterly online magazine, "IWA Magazine" (formerly known as "Islamic Ink") which features Islamic fiction. Another anthology, "Between Love, Hope and Fear" published in 2007 by An-Najm Publishers of UK, is a collection of short stories, poetry and essays written by Muslims from around the globe. The American Muslim women's magazine, "Azizah", regularly features original short works of Islamic fiction and poetry. "Damazine" is a quarterly online literary journal which publishes Muslim-related fiction (including Islamic fiction), creative nonfiction and poetry. Awards. Several Muslim organizations encourage the creation of Islamic fiction and other creative writing by hosting annual awards for Islamic literary arts. The Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA) began sponsoring poetry contests for children and adults in 2005. As part of its efforts in the cause of promoting literacy with an emphasis on Islamic literature, the IWA also traditionally grants annual awards in the form of book donations to libraries of Islamic Schools. In 2009, IWA added an Islamic fiction section for teens and adults to its contest, and in 2011, it added a non-fiction Essays section which was co-sponsored by Zakat Foundation of America in association with the IWA. Since 2006, the Muslim Writers Awards hosts an annual Muslim Writers contest which accepts submissions for poetry, fiction, screenplay and other literary forms, including young Muslims categories. Select winners of the Muslim Writers Awards have their work published at IslamOnline. Authors of Islamic fiction. Although the term "Islamic fiction" is rather new in circles of literature and Muslims alike, the art of Islamic fiction is not really so new. "Muslim Narratives and the Discourse of English", a study written by Amin Malik and published by State University of New York Press, Albany, in 2005, documents that the first ever work of fiction in English language by a Muslim author was published as early as 1905. Some of these authors write Islamic fiction exclusively for children, while others direct their work to an older audience of Young Adults. Although more authors are being discovered daily as to having written and published works to come under the classification of Islamic fiction, and so no list is extensively exclusive, to view a more comprehensive listing of these authors, please refer to the external links listed in the External links section of this page. Controversy. There are conflicting views amongst Muslims as to whether reading and writing fictional stories is or is not "halal" (permissible) within Islam. In fiqh, although not outright considered "haram" (impermissible), “abandoning busying oneself with [fiction stories] is preferable” and fiction stories are seen as a frivolous way for a Muslim to use their time. Another interpretation is that fictional stories are permissible and even encouraged for purposes of "dawah", to help people to learn about Islam, as long as the author has made clear that the story is not true. As well, the writing should be in the style of Islamic fiction.

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Pari (2018 Indian film) Pari () is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language supernatural horror film directed by Prosit Roy in his debut. It stars Anushka Sharma and marks her 3rd production venture for her company Clean Slate Filmz. Parambrata Chatterjee, Ritabhari Chakraborty, Rajat Kapoor and Mansi Multani feature in supporting roles. Production on the film began in June 2017 and it released theatrically on 2 March 2018. Plot. The story revolves around the demon Ifrit and Auladhchakra, a satanic cult in Bangladesh aiming to progress the bloodline of Ifrit. They torture innocent women and summon the demon to rape them so that they are impregnated with its offspring. Professor Qasim Ali used to head a group of vigilantes that sought out women impregnated by Ifrit, kept them captive until they gave birth, then immediately killed the demonic babies by cutting off their heads and sealing them within glass jars. This drew opposition from the villagers despite the support and the group was shut down due to their violently radical approach. Rukhsana (Anushka Sharma )is the daughter of one such woman, who was a victim of the satanic ritual but escaped her captivity before Professor Ali could kill her child. Arnab is a young man who runs a printing press. Piyali, a nurse, is set for an arranged marriage with him. On the way home in the heavy rain, he and his father accidentally hit an old woman. The woman dies and when police search her home, an old hut in the forest, they find a dirty Rukhsana chained inside. Arnab, feeling sympathetic and responsible upon realizing she has no one, takes her in. Rukhsana knows nothing of the modern outside world and often sees demonic visions that terrorize her. Arnab finds her strange but endearing. As the two spend time together, she falls in love with him. A mortuary assistant discovers that Rukhsana's mother has the cult's mark on her skin and informs Professor Ali, who has been searching for Rukhsana for years. One night, Rukhsana gets sick. Though Arnab mistakes it for her period, the truth is that every month, her body needs to spew out the poison it produces due to her demon blood. She secretly kills a dog by biting it and releasing her poison. She later admits she loves Arnab and the two make love. The next morning, Professor Ali confronts Arnab with the truth about her but he refuses to believe him. The morgue assistant fights Arnab, injuring him. Rukhsana kills the assistant in retaliation and gets between Arnab and Piyali, feeling jealous. When Arnab argues with her, she grabs him by the throat and lifts him clear off the ground. Disturbed, Arnab realizes Professor Ali was right and researches Ifrit. He learns that Ifrit babies are born in one month instead of nine, and without an umbilical cord. Arnab contacts Professor Ali. Just as he arrives with his men, Rukhsana reveals to Arnab that she is pregnant. The professor's men tie her up and torture her so that she dies of her own poison. Though she cries for Arnab, he leaves, depressed. After three weeks, Piyali visits Arnab at his parent's house and he tells her the truth about Rukhsana. His conversation with her makes him realize he shouldn't have left her to die. Rukhsana, after being beaten repeatedly, breaks free and kills the professor before heading over to Piyali's. She injures Piyali, but goes into labor. Piyali is unable to kill her, being a nurse and with her own past of having an abortion. Instead, she helps Rukhsana deliver the baby, which has an umbilical cord. Rukhsana leaves the baby to her and disappears. Arnab rushes to the old hut, where he finds her near death. He cries and hugs her. She resists the urge to bite him and release her poison, instead letting it remain in her body. Before dying, she tells Arnab that the baby is human. At the end, Arnab says that Rukhsana's love made the baby human, rather than Ifrit's hatred. Marketing. The first look of "Pari" was released on 13 June 2017 by Sharma via her Twitter handle. The film's motion poster, promotionally called "Screamer", was released on 9 January 2018, showing the face of Sharma's character getting bruised. A 30-second clip, the second "screamer", was released on 3 February 2018, which showed Sharma watching a cartoon on television with an idyllic smile, giving the impression that she is safe and okay. However, the camera pans to show that her hands and feet are bruised, and she is chained to the bed. The official teaser of "Pari" was released on 7 February 2018 by Sharma via her Twitter handle. The third "screamer", released on Valentine's Day, opens with Anushka and Parambrata's characters watching television when Anushka says "I love you" to him. She becomes disturbed when she hears an eerie female voice respond, "I love you too." The camera pans to show a bloody and battered version of herself, grinning and terrifying the real Anushka. The official trailer of Pari was released one day later, on 15 February 2018. After the trailer, two other "screamers" have been released. Controversies. During the shooting of the film in August 2017 at Basanti State Highway, 24 Pgs. (S) district of West Bengal, a technician was electrocuted. The shooting of the film was immediately stopped but was started again after a while. The film has been banned in Pakistan for allegedly promoting black magic, some non-Islamic values and anti-Muslim sentiments. Music. The music of "Pari" was composed by Anupam Roy while the lyrics were written by Anvita Dutt. Reception. Critical response. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 42% based on 6 reviews with an average rating of 5 out of 10. Positive reviews gave a definite praise for Anushka's performance and praised the makers for doing a movie on this genre. While Renuka Vyavahare of TOI called it “Anushka’s strongest work as an actor-producer so far”, she also went on to add that, “Pari has the ability to redefine the genre as it’s refreshingly different, atmospheric and moody”. Rajeev Masand of News18 gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 saying that, "Pari, co-produced by and starring Anushka Sharma, is a competently made film that’s rich in atmospherics.”, but he went onto conclude that “Pari doesn’t come together in a coherent, satisfying way. What starts out interestingly, ends in a mess." Rohit Bhatnagar of Deccan Chronicle stated: “Pari is a delightful treat to those who are fond of horror flicks. And stop complaining that Bollywood doesn't produce good horror films!” Koimoi reviewed Pari as “one of the best to come out of this genre”. As a last word they added: “Hollywood, please take out the notepad and write down the stuff from Pari on how to make a non-clichéd horror film. Surely one of the best in this genre & a must watch for the fans. Producer Anushka Sharma needs a special mention to make this possible” and rated the film 3.5 out of 5. "Gulf news" gave the movie 3 stars out of 5 and wrote that “Anushka Sharma’s horror film is a world apart from other ghoulish Bollywood offerings, and that’s a good thing”. Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave the film a rating of 1 out of 5 and said that, "Anushka Sharma's film Pari is a confusing tale of ghosts, ghouls, djinns and forced legitimacy. Pari appears puzzled as if they don't know how to end what they started. With 136-minute screen time, Pari doesn't head anywhere." Lakshana N Palat of India Today gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 saying that, "The story of Pari is submerged under irrelevant scenes, jump scares, and the desperate need to fall into the horror-film category. It's a shame, because the storyline was actually quite a unique and interesting one." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film a rating of 1 out of 5 and concluded her review by saying that, "Anushka Sharma plays Rukhsana with a great deal of bloody enthusiasm. You cannot accuse her of not trying hard, but the film is so poorly-written, and so scatter-brained that nothing can rescue it." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV said about the film that, "It lacks the narrative consistency that its in-your-face methods needed in order to be truly effective. In the end, the makers of Pari try way too hard. The outcome is an extended blur that leaves you dazed but totally unimpressed." and gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5.

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The Ultimate Revelations The Ultimate Revelations (1996) is an Islamic science fiction novel by Jamshed Akhtar. Overview. Published in 1996, the book outlines a two-part hypothesis about revelations. First, it presents a universal design linking all revelations on earth, and explains the continuity of this phenomenon via the arrival of a last and final transmission on earth with future guidance hidden in it, in layers. Humanity is expected to decode the guidance, layer by layer, in different time frames till its end. The second part of the book then analyses the claim of the Qur'an as being that final Message. To support this hypothesis, the author presents several arguments from the historical records describing the advent of Qur'anic revelations ("Wahy"), its language of communication, its time of arrival, the characteristics of its recipient nation, the information in its contents, and the presence of an interpreting mechanism built into the Qur'an. The effect of the Message is presented, encompassing not only the initial seven centuries of development and progress under Muslim rule, but also the later period extending till today, when as per the author, the chaos gradually took hold of the Muslim realm and a different part of the planet developed, based on the infra-structure of information provided through the fall of Spain. Final chapter of the book is devoted to an analysis of Rashad Khalifa's controversial mathematical structure in the text of Qur'an, pointing out the problems that had become the basis of its rejection in the Muslim world. Plot. The story is set sometimes in the twenty-first century. An expanding shell of low energy from the sun's core, moving towards its surface for the last million years, breaks through its outer envelope. The shell is thin, and the slight decrease in the solar output is not expected to last long. Still, the event has tremendous potential of menace. Even this tiny solar hiccup has the capability to push the planet again towards a cold grave, from which it had painfully emerged just twelve thousand years ago. Concurrent with this freak solar activity, a young scientist begins having strange and puzzling dreams of momentous events from the past. He sees an event in the formation of solar event, a day in the Cretaceous period, Noah's Ark being constructed, Buddha's sermon to a large multitude, Moses climbing the mountain to keep tryst with the mysterious fire, child Mary's guardianship being decided in the temple, and an episode in Mohammed's life. The mystic night visions leave the young man perturbed and intrigued, but also prod him to study and collect data on meta-physical aspect of life. Meanwhile, falling temperatures all over the world herald the onset of an ice age. The planet in its fight for survival, tries to distribute the heat stored in oceans all over the land. Tornadoes, squalls and high velocity winds sweep the planet and add to the misery of the humanity already suffering from the energy crunch. It is at this crucial juncture that the young man receives an inspiration, and presents before the world a hypothesis about a 'Grand Cosmic Design'... The Design is aesthetically beautiful, extremely simple and awesome in its expanse. Yet, the most remarkable thing about it is its promise of the expected arrival of a 'Message from stars' that has all the knowledge of Cosmos hidden in it. Spread over six days of teleconference, the young scientist then lays before the world hundreds of arguments, from different disciplines of science, showing to humanity that this 'logically predicted Message of the Design' is not a thing of the future, but is already here, and in order to save the planet, humanity is only required to unravel the information coded within it... But humanity dithers. And as the ice age tightens its talons around the planet, and organic life groans under the increased sufferings, the young man himself decides to work on the Message. Once again he gets help and presents before the world, the ultimate argument, its anomaly and its solution... Reception. The book was published independently, and therefore was not widely distributed through commercial channels. Nonetheless, it received critical coverage in a number of media, and was promoted by Sheikha Azza Sultan Al-Qasimi, daughter of Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi. Khaleej Times in an article entitled "Holy Quran in Scientific Light" dated May 2, 1998 cited a number of commentators on the book: The book has been called "gripping", "a clever amalgam of fact and fiction" and a "message from the stars". Tariq Abdullah, a religious scholar, called 'The Ultimate Revelations' "a unique religion-science fiction, with a purpose and therefore very different from other science fictions". The book has, however, been criticised for its author's misunderstanding of Arabic, and for its obsession with numerology.

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Islamic fiction Islamic fiction is a genre of fiction. Islamic fiction works expound and illustrate an Islamic world view, put forth some explicit Islamic lessons in their plot and characterizations, or serve to make Muslims visible. Islamic fiction is different than Muslim fiction, which may refer to any and all works of fiction produced by Muslims. Islamic fiction established. While fiction has been produced throughout the entirety of Muslim history (such as One Thousand and One Nights, the term "Islamic fiction" has not been used until recently. In 2005 and 2006 the Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA), a professional Muslim organization based in the US with an International membership, took on the work of defining Islamic fiction and determining the criteria to establish it as a fiction subcategory of adult and juvenile fiction. The membership then began the process of identifying published Islamic fiction books that were at that time described as Muslim authored books or children's books in the Muslim book industry. This was done because so many books were getting lost in the previously established classification methods from the BISAC system, that a need for establishing a clear and distinct classification of specialization for this style of literature was realized, and thereby action taken towards a unification of the definition. Islamic fiction defined. Islamic fiction refers to creative, imaginative, non-preachy fiction books written by Muslims and marketed primarily to Muslims. Islamic fiction may be marketed to mainstream markets as well. The content of these books will likely incorporate some religious content and themes, and may include non-fictionalized historical or factual Islamic content with or without direct reference to the Qur'an or the Sunnah of Mohammed. The stories may also include modern, real life situations and moral dilemmas. Authors of Islamic fiction intend for readers to learn something positive about Islam when they read Islamic fiction stories. Islamic fiction cannot include harmful content: vulgar language, sexually explicit content, un-Islamic practices that are not identified as un-Islamic, or content that portrays Islam in a negative way. Issues which may impact Muslim evaluation of Islamic fiction story content. While Islamic knowledge presented in Islamic fiction may be taken directly from the Qur'an and traditions of Muhammad, as well as from Islamic history, not all of the Islamic content in these books will be considered factual or acceptable by all Muslim readers. This is due to differences between a Muslim reader and the writers, editors, and publishers with respect to personal practices, beliefs and knowledge, as well as the influence of his school of thought, culture, and tradition. Determining the accuracy and permissibility of Islamic content is the responsibility of every adult Muslim reader. This may differ according to individual differences in school of thought and practice. All Muslim parents, guardians, teachers, and school administrators must determine whether a book's content is halal for their children and students. This Islamic Reminder holds true for all materials a Muslim reads. Emergence as a literary form. Currently Islamic fiction is not recognized as a category by the Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) coding system; however works from other mainstream fiction genres are found to meet the criteria. For example, Leila Abouzeid’s "The Year of The Elephant" (Arabic version 1983, English translation 1989), the first work written by a Moroccan woman to be translated to English, has been identified as falling into the sub-categories of being both a feminist novel, and because of its depiction of the protagonist and other characters practicing Islam, qualifying as Islamic fiction. Amongst the first wave of Islamic fiction (as defined here) written in English specifically for Muslim audiences was juvenile fiction, including the series "Invincible Abdullah" originally published from 1993-1995 by Aziza and Uthman Hutchinson, and the "Ahmad Deen Series" (1996) by Yahiya Emerick. The first two English language series of Islamic fiction novels written for teens and adults is Umm Zakiyyah’s "Tamika Douglass Trilogy" beginning with "If I Should Speak" (2001) and the "Echo Series" written by Jamilah Kolocotronis beginning with "Echoes" (2006). Kolocotronis’ first Islamic fiction title, "Innocent People" was self-published in 2003. In 2004, Irving Karchmar published the Sufi novel, "Master of the Jinn". Linda D. Delgado, prolific author of Islamic fiction in addition to other various works, began writing and publishing the award-winning "Islamic Rose" series in 2005, with the latest edition of this series last published in early 2012. Subgenres. Works of Islamic fiction have been written in several fiction genres. Maryam "Umm Juwayriyah" Sullivan's teen/adult novel "The Size of a Mustard Seed" (2009) is the first known Urban Islamic fiction title. Najiyah Diana Helwani's juvenile Islamic fiction title "Sophia's Journal: Time Warp 1857" (2008) has been classified as both a historical fiction novel as well as science fiction. The seminal juvenile fiction series "Invincible Abdullah" and "Ahmad Deen" are both written in mystery styles. MuslimMatters.org, a popular multi-author Muslim blog, has published a series of genre-blending novels by Wael Abdelgawad that draw from the Islamic fiction, action, mystery and thriller categories. Short stories. Some Islamic fiction shorts can be found amongst other works in mainstream or special-interest anthologies, such as collections of Arab or South Asian writers, but very few anthologies and venues exclusively feature Islamic fiction shorts and poetry. The Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA) has produced two anthology titles of Islamic fiction and poetry, "Many Poetic Voices, One Faith" (2008) and "Many Voices, One Faith II – Islamic Fiction Stories" (2009). IWA also produces a quarterly online magazine, "IWA Magazine" (formerly known as "Islamic Ink") which features Islamic fiction. Another anthology, "Between Love, Hope and Fear" published in 2007 by An-Najm Publishers of UK, is a collection of short stories, poetry and essays written by Muslims from around the globe. The American Muslim women's magazine, "Azizah", regularly features original short works of Islamic fiction and poetry. "Damazine" is a quarterly online literary journal which publishes Muslim-related fiction (including Islamic fiction), creative nonfiction and poetry. Awards. Several Muslim organizations encourage the creation of Islamic fiction and other creative writing by hosting annual awards for Islamic literary arts. The Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA) began sponsoring poetry contests for children and adults in 2005. As part of its efforts in the cause of promoting literacy with an emphasis on Islamic literature, the IWA also traditionally grants annual awards in the form of book donations to libraries of Islamic Schools. In 2009, IWA added an Islamic fiction section for teens and adults to its contest, and in 2011, it added a non-fiction Essays section which was co-sponsored by Zakat Foundation of America in association with the IWA. Since 2006, the Muslim Writers Awards hosts an annual Muslim Writers contest which accepts submissions for poetry, fiction, screenplay and other literary forms, including young Muslims categories. Select winners of the Muslim Writers Awards have their work published at IslamOnline. Authors of Islamic fiction. Although the term "Islamic fiction" is rather new in circles of literature and Muslims alike, the art of Islamic fiction is not really so new. "Muslim Narratives and the Discourse of English", a study written by Amin Malik and published by State University of New York Press, Albany, in 2005, documents that the first ever work of fiction in English language by a Muslim author was published as early as 1905. Some of these authors write Islamic fiction exclusively for children, while others direct their work to an older audience of Young Adults. Although more authors are being discovered daily as to having written and published works to come under the classification of Islamic fiction, and so no list is extensively exclusive, to view a more comprehensive listing of these authors, please refer to the external links listed in the External links section of this page. Controversy. There are conflicting views amongst Muslims as to whether reading and writing fictional stories is or is not "halal" (permissible) within Islam. In fiqh, although not outright considered "haram" (impermissible), “abandoning busying oneself with [fiction stories] is preferable” and fiction stories are seen as a frivolous way for a Muslim to use their time. Another interpretation is that fictional stories are permissible and even encouraged for purposes of "dawah", to help people to learn about Islam, as long as the author has made clear that the story is not true. As well, the writing should be in the style of Islamic fiction.

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The Deathbird "The Deathbird" is a novelette by American writer Harlan Ellison. It won the 1974 Hugo Award for Best Novelette and Locus Award for Best Short Story. It has been included in the author's short story collection "Deathbird Stories". Plot. Millions of years ago, "The Mad One", also known as Ialdabaoth or God, took over the earth in a sort of cosmic lawsuit. The original creators left behind one last member of their race, Dira, to tell humans the truth about their god, but the dominant traditions throughout the ages denounce Dira as evil. Now, the world is coming to an end and Nathan Stack, the latest incarnation of a long line of humans going back to Lilith’s husband, is revived by Snake (aka Dira) to make the journey to the mountain where God lives. He is the only human capable of confronting him and putting the Earth out of its misery through the summoning of what is referred to as the Deathbird. The story also contains a few side plots, presumably about Nathan Stack or previous reincarnations of him. These stories tell of people that have had to make difficult decisions, allowing loved ones to die. In one such story, his mother wants him to "use the needle" and kill her, ending her pain. This situation is repeated at the end of the story, where Nathan Stack must "use the needle" and end the pain of the planet.

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Biblical speculative fiction Biblical speculative fiction is speculative fiction that uses Christian themes and incorporates the Christian worldview. (It is thus distinct from speculations on the Bible and/or Christianity such as Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code".) The difference between biblical speculative fiction and general Christian speculative fiction is that the Christian nature of the story is overt. This represents the tension in the Christian fiction community between those who prefer stories that reflect a Christian worldview without explicitly Christian references (such as "The Lord of the Rings"), and those who prefer the more overt Christian material usually found in the works of G. K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis. Current examples of these views may be found in the explanatory page of "Ray Gun Revival", a magazine that takes the non-explicit route, and the homepage blurb of the Lost Genre Guild, a group dedicated to explicitly Christian speculative fiction. Development. Modern biblical speculative fiction may be divided into two phases, though to some extent this reflects American Evangelical tendencies, not those of the world in general. The first phase is a science-adventure story where the characters are generally devout Christians. They act on guidance from God, but no overt or miraculous divine intervention occurs. Like many other early Evangelical novels, there is almost always a non-Christian character who eventually becomes born again as a result of a formulaic process for getting saved. The emphasis is biblical and doctrinal. Theoretically, one could strip out the Christian content and simply get a moral, ethical science-fiction story, though some characters' motivations would be affected. A good example of this phase is Bernard Palmer's "Jim Dunlap" series from the late sixties, which was almost a Christian answer to Tom Swift, Jr.: Dr. Brockton, a godly former missionary, becomes a brilliant scientist, winning his young associates (including Jim Dunlap) to Christ as he produces various high-tech marvels, such as the wingless plane and a space station. The second phase can almost be summed up in a single name: Frank Peretti. These stories still have a biblical and doctrinal emphasis, but they also feature miraculous intervention. Unlike the first type mentioned above, they are inherently Christian and would implode if the Christian content were removed. The salvation formula is not rigidly followed: a character's salvation experience is often more of a process than a formula-based event. The importance of Peretti is likely that he showed other writers what was possible: "This Present Darkness" unapologetically featured demons, angels, and a non-human perspective on spiritual warfare. Much modern biblical speculative fiction derives from Peretti's approach or at least responds to it. On the other hand, writers outside the American Evangelical community have produced some "modern" works for decades. G. K. Chesterton's "The Ball and the Cross", for example, has a science-fictional opening as critical of evolution as anything written today, provides a salvation without the usual "sinner's prayer", and toward the end features a miraculous divine intervention Peretti could have written. Likewise, C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia are non-formulaic in their approach to salvation and overtly miraculous in content. The same is true of Lewis' "Space Trilogy". Current Venues. In the last few years, many new venues have opened for the Biblical, or Christian, Speculative Fiction genre. Jeff Gerke's Marcher Lord Press is an excellent example of this. MLP is an independent publishing house for CSF and has made a name for itself within the Christian publishing industry. Using Print on Demand (POD) technology, MLP has managed to usher in a new era for CSF and publishing in general. Other independent publishers have since followed this model such as Odyssey Illustrated Press, for instance, which came on the industry scene following encouragement from Gerke. The result has brought a broader range of CSF to this niche market, but has also answered the demand for more variety in the genre as well. Twelve House is a publisher also Christ-centered; more can be found via twelvehousebooks.wordpress.com In addition to MLP, OIP, and other publishers, there are several Internet only venues referred as e-zines or web-zines. These include Mind Flights, Residential Aliens, and The Cross and the Cosmos just to name a few. These venues offer free CSF for the masses and enable the propagation of the genre. They include a variety of downloadable content, stories, and poetry. The future? A different view of the subgenre's development suggests that there is a trend toward increasing inclusion, just as evangelical Protestants in general seem to be opening up to other branches of Christianity. This view is based on stories from a recent anthology, "Light at the Edge of Darkness", and on cooperation in the field in general, such as promotion of non-Protestant works by Protestant writers, and vice versa. OIP uses the model of distribution precedented by MLP, but publishes CSF that is more progressive in its approach to plot themes and character development. They are open to Christian readers and non-Christian readers alike. This growing approach to CSF is becoming more common place and is developing a 'New Wave' of CSF that is not unlike the movement in secular speculative fiction in the sixties, helmed by writers such as Michael Moorcock.

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Where Love Is, God Is "Where Love Is, God Is" (sometimes also translated as "Where Love Is, There God Is Also" or "Martin the Cobbler") is a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy. The title references the Catholic hymn Ubi Caritas. One English translation of this short story as translated by Nathan Haskell Dole uses the alternate title translation of "Where Love Is, There God Is Also". It was published in the United States under Crowell Company's "Worth While Booklet" Series. It was written in 1885. Summary. "Where Love Is, God Is" is a short story about a shoemaker named Martin Avdeitch. The story begins with a background on Martin's life. He was a fine cobbler as he did his work well and never promised to do anything that he could not do. He stayed busy with his work in his basement which had only one window. Through this window he could see only the feet of people. He was still able to recognize most people by their shoes as he had worked with most of the shoes at least once. He had a wife, but she died, and all their children had died in their infancy except a three-year-old son. After he thought about sending him off to live with his sister he decided to care for the child himself. Martin however, was not destined to have a child as his son died a few years later with a fever. In grief, he denied God, wondering how He could allow such a thing to happen to him. One day a missionary visited Martin and Martin told him of his hardships. This missionary told Martin that he should live his life for God and not deny Him because God's will is the ultimate deciding factor and as humans we cannot question that. The missionary's words sank deep into Martin. After this encounter Martin went out and bought a large print Testament. He began to read the Bible, at first only on holidays, but as he read more and more it became daily. His life became full with peace and joy. After his day of work he would sit down with a lamp and read. One night Martin read a passage about a Pharisee who had invited Jesus into his house, and in the house a woman anointed and washed Jesus' feet with her tears. Martin thought of himself as the Pharisee in that story as he was only living for himself. As Martin slept he thought he heard the voice of God telling him that He would visit him the next day. The next morning Martin skeptically watched out his window for God. While he was searching for God he saw Stepanitch shoveling away snow. Martin invited him in for a warm drink and they talked for a while. Martin told Stepanitch about Jesus' and the Pharisee and Stepanitch was moved to tears. Stepanitch later left and thanked Martin for the food, both for the soul and body. Martin later saw a young woman outside with a baby not properly dressed for the cold. He invited her in for some food and gave her warmer clothes and money. Martin also told her about Jesus and she thanked him and left. Then he saw a young boy stealing from an older lady. He went outside and settled their argument as he extended love and compassion towards the both of them. That night while Martin wondered why God had not visited him, the three figures appeared in his home, who he had showed hospitality to that day. They said that when he helped them he was helping God. Martin then realized that God had indeed visited him, and he accepted Him well. Adaptations. The Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů based a short opera on this story, however he used the title of another story by Tolstoi “What Men Live By”. Libretto of this opera-pastoral in one act (1952) was written by the composer. It was adapted into "Pratiksha" an episode from the Indian television series, "Katha Sagar" (1986), and a 1977 claymation special animated by Will Vinton. The Christmas Guest, a holiday poem written and recorded by Grandpa Jones and later recorded by Johnny Cash and Reba McEntire, is based on this story. A Haitian Creole translation was produced by Haitian author, Carrié Paultre, published by the Presse Evangélique and the University of Kansas (Bryant C. Freeman). Shoemaker Martin (1997), a children's book by Brigitte Hanhart, is based on this story. It was adapted made-for-TV movie, "Winter Thaw" (2016) for BYUTV, starring John Rhys-Davies, and filmed in Lithuania. The film was produced by Utah-based Kaleidoscope Pictures. The film was directed by Adam Thomas Anderegg and Produced by Russ Kendall. Screenplay by Joseph Clay and Russ Kendall. It was screened on BYU TV and can be viewed on demand. It received an Emmy Award in 2017.

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Disagreeable Tales Disagreeable Tales () is an 1894 short story collection by the French writer Léon Bloy. It consists of 30 tales set in Paris, focused on criminality, perversions, and other subject matters typical of the decadent movement. The common theme is the faith in God in a time of human spiritual crisis. An English translation by Erik Butler was published in 2015 by Wakefield Press. Reception. Erik Morse wrote for "The Paris Review" in 2015, "What distinguishes Bloy's 'tales' from those written by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Poe, and Lautréamont is the marked absence of any sensualist or proto-surrealist tone with its ecstatic invocations of the flesh, like those that characterize Romantic literature since William Blake. Rather, Bloy's bilious allusions to excrement ('ordure'), genitalia, rot, disease, and waste descend from a negative theology, which extols a mystical, self-mortification[.] ... For Bloy, all physical pleasures are diversion or, worst yet, satanic temptation, so it is only through intense suffering and punishment that his characters can expiate their sins."

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Cipher in the Snow Cipher in the Snow is a short story written by Jean Mizer about the death of an ostracized teenager. It was later made into a short film by Brigham Young University in 1973. Background. "Cipher in the Snow", written by Jean Mizer, an Idaho teacher, counselor and guidance director, was first published in the "NEA Journal", 50:8-10, 1964. It won first prize in the first Reader's Digest/NEA Journal writing competition. It has since been frequently reprinted and the story and film used in moral education; for instance, as part of anti-bullying initiatives. BYU Motion Picture Studios made a movie of it in 1973. The film was produced by Wetzel Whitaker and Keith Atkinson, with a screenplay by Carol Lynn Pearson. A DVD of the movie is available through BYU's Creative Works Office. Synopsis. The story is about an ostracized teenager, Cliff Evans, who following his parents' divorce has no friends and becomes a completely withdrawn "cipher". Then on a school bus, he asks to be let off, and collapses and dies in the snow near the roadside. His school's math teacher is asked to notify his parents and write the obituary. Though listed as Cliff's favorite teacher, he recalls that he hardly knew him. After getting a delegation to go to the funeral - it's impossible to find ten people who knew him well enough to go - the teacher resolves never to let this happen to another child in his charge. It is implied that his death was because no one loved him.

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Bible fiction The term Bible fiction refers to works of fiction which use characters, settings and events taken from the Bible. The degree of fictionalization in these works varies and, although they are often written by Christians or Jews, this is not always the case. Originally, these novels were consistent with true belief in the historicity of the Bible's narrative, replete with miracles, and God's explicit presence. Some of these works have been important and influential, and eventually there have appeared heterodox Bible novels that reflect modern, postmodern or realist influences and themes. An early Bible novel that may still be the most influential is "" by Lew Wallace, and published by Harper & Brothers on November 12, 1880. It remained the best-selling American novel of all time, surpassing Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) in sales and remaining at the top of the US all-time bestseller list until the publication of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" (1936). "Ben-Hur" is a bildungsroman and adventure novel that follows the tumultuous life of its protagonist, Judah Ben-Hur. He is a fictional Jewish noble from Jerusalem who suffers betrayal (by a boyhood friend) and consequently his enslavement and his family's imprisonment by the Romans. Concurrent with Judah's narrative is the developing Christian story, as Jesus and Judah are natives of the same region and about the same age. Judah survives his ordeal and becomes a famous soldier and charioteer, enabling him to avenge his misfortune. Judah's encounters with Jesus first during Judah's and then during Jesus' suffering lead to the Messiah's curing of Judah's sister and mother of leprosy and Judah's conversion to Christianity. There have been numerous film adaptations including the 1959 version starring Charlton Heston that won ten academy awards. "The Robe" (1942) by Lloyd C. Douglas was one of the best-selling novels of the 1940s and dramatizes the crucifixion of Jesus from the point of view of Marcellus Gallio, the Roman tribune who commands the garrison that carries out the crucifixion of Jesus. Marcellus winds up in custody of Jesus' robe and converts to Christianity because of his experiences interacting with the robe's magical powers. Like "Ben-Hur", "The Robe" was in 1953 adapted into an Academy Award winning film. In the twentieth century, there began to appear heterodox Bible fiction. Nikos Kazantzakis' "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1960), caused a widespread outcry and appeared on many banned book lists for its dramatization of Jesus as wracked by temptations, beset by fear, doubts, depression, reluctance and lust. However, Jesus is nevertheless portrayed as a miracle-worker and the son of God who is resurrected following the crucifixion. Norman Mailer's "The Gospel According to the Son" (1997) is a retelling in Mailer's own words that adheres closely to the Gospel narrative including miracles and resurrection. This was noteworthy in part because Mailer was a Jew, not a Christian. Philip Pullman's "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ" (2010) is a heavily allegorical retelling of the Christian story that uses postmodern techniques and is an evident polemic against Christianity. It retells the story of Jesus as if he were two people, brothers, "Jesus" and "Christ," with contrasting personalities: Jesus is a moral and spiritual man, and his brother Christ is an ambitious character who wishes to hijack Jesus' biography and legacy to develop a myth that will be the foundation for a powerful and worldly Church. Other works are regarded as heterodox simply because they dramatize the Bible stories realistically, shorn of mythical, miraculous or magical elements. They may even include the transformation from real life events to mythology as part of the narrative. Realist Bible novels are typically semi-historical in that they develop the setting in Israel or Egypt or Rome or as the case may be—including the political and class and racial conflicts and urban and rural landscape imagery—with fidelity to known historical facts. As Robert Graves said of his novel "King Jesus" (1946), "I undertake to my readers that every important element in my story is based on some tradition, however tenuous, and that I have taken more than ordinary pains to verify my historical background." Realist Bible novels employ in some way the narratives that comprise the canonical Biblical narrative, but shorn of miracles, or God's explicit presence. With respect to Jesus' biography, Jesus is portrayed as a man, usually a rebel against the wealthy classes (sometimes he himself is born into a privileged background and rebels against his own class), and the ruling Romans and their local client autocrats. Sometimes Jesus' biography is enhanced by sources external to the canonical gospels such as Josephus' chronicles, the Talmud, or non-canonical gospels, and the author's imagination. Graves' "King Jesus" develops the protagonist as, not the son of God, but rather as a philosopher with a legitimate claim to be the earthly king of the Jews as a descendant of Herod the Great, and the Old Testament's David. The novel has heterodox retellings of Biblical stories. "Joseph and His Brothers" (1943) is a novel by Thomas Mann that retells the familiar stories of Genesis, from Jacob to Joseph, setting it in the historical context of the Amarna Period. Mann considered it his greatest work. "The Red Tent" (1997) a novel by Anita Diamant, is a first-person narrative that tells the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph. Diamont has broadened her character from her minor and brief role in the Bible. The book's title refers to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, as dictated by ancient law, be quarantined while menstruating or giving birth. There the women find mutual support and encouragement from their mothers, sisters and aunts. Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks' "The Secret Chord" (2015) is narrated by Natan, the prophet who communicates God's directives to David. The scriptures are her primary sources for the plot, which includes all the well-known key events: Goliath, David's facility with the harp, kingdom building, Bathsheba, and so on. There are other characters fully developed from Brooks' imagination and portrayed through Natan's point of view. "The Testament of Mary" (2012) a novella by Colm Toibin, is a retelling of the Christian story from the point of view of Mary, the mother of Jesus. However, she does not believe Jesus is the Son of God – she knows he is a man – and she is contemptuous of the Gospel writers who visit her to solicit her cooperation and give her food and shelter. The themes or questions that the novel explores are narrative truth and fiction, feminism, loss, identity and corruption thereof, invasion of privacy, and worldly ambition. "The Testament of Mary" was adapted into a Broadway play. "The Liars' Gospel" (2012), by Jewish author Naomi Alderman, retells the Christ story from a Jewish perspective. Four witnesses to the key events, Mary, Judas, Caiaphas and Barabbas, are the narrators in four sections of the novel, and the story spans the period from Pompey's siege of Jerusalem in 63 BC through Titus's siege in 70 AD. "John the Baptizer" (2009), by Brooks Hansen and published by W. W. Norton & Company, is a novelized life of John the Baptist that dramatizes the man beneath the hagiography. According to Christian theology, John was merely a forerunner to Christ, but Hansen's portrait is strongly influenced by the Gnostic teachings that reveal John as a messianic figure at the center of a sect called the Mandeans, and more mature, rigorous and restrained than his younger and charismatic protégé Jesus. "Logos" (2015), a novel by John Neeleman and published by Homebound Publications, a small press, and winner of an Independent Publisher Book Awards gold medal for religious fiction and the Utah Book Award for fiction, is a bildungsroman that follows the life and development of the anonymous author of the original gospel. Jacob, a former temple priest in Jerusalem who has been rendered bereft by the Jewish wars and consequent destruction of his family and culture, is inspired by his own autobiography and Paul's mythmaking to create the canonical gospels' original narrative. The Gospel According to Lazarus (2019), a novel by Richard Zimler, expands upon the story of Lazarus of Bethany, who was raised from the dead in the Gospel of John. According to Zimler, one of the objectives of his novel was to return to the New Testament figures their Judaism, so in his narrative, Jesus is called Yeshua ben Yosef and Lazarus is called Eliezer ben Natan. Yeshua and Eliezer have been best friends from childhood, and Yeshua is characterized as a Merkabah mystic. The themes of the book include how we cope with a loss of faith, the terrible sacrifices we make for those we love, the transcendent meaning of Yeshua's mission, and how we go on after suffering a shattering trauma. Reviewing the novel for The Guardian, novelist Peter Stanford called it "a brave and engaging novel... a page-turner. I simply had to keep going to the very end in order to know on earth what would happen."

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Urban Christian fiction Urban Christian fiction is a subgenre of Christian fiction and urban fiction in which conflicting stories of emotion and vividness mixes God, the urban church, and faith. Violence and sex is not purposely excluded, but are included whenever necessary for the story line. God is the center of the characters' lives in Urban Christian fiction, and these stories usually portray African-American or Latino urban culture. Urban Christian fiction is classified as part of the African-American Christian Market (AACM), where the hot-selling topics are fiction, books for dating, dramatic testimony, and single parenting. Some of the themes and topics considered within "Urban Christian fiction" cross over into theological fiction.

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Barlaam and Josaphat Barlaam and Josaphat are legendary Christian martyrs and saints. Their life story is very likely to have been based on the life of the Gautama Buddha. It tells how an Indian king persecuted the Christian Church in his realm. When astrologers predicted that his own son would some day become a Christian, the king imprisoned the young prince Josaphat, who nevertheless met the hermit Saint Barlaam and converted to Christianity. After much tribulation the young prince's father accepted the Christian faith, turned over his throne to Josaphat, and retired to the desert to become a hermit. Josaphat himself later abdicated and went into seclusion with his old teacher Barlaam. The tale derives from a second to fourth century Sanskrit Mahayana Buddhist text, via a Manichaean version, then the Arabic "Kitāb Bilawhar wa-Būd̠āsaf" (Book of Bilawhar and Budhasaf), current in Baghdad in the eighth century, from where it entered into Middle Eastern Christian circles before appearing in European versions. The two were entered in the Eastern Orthodox calendar with a feast-day on 26 August, and in the Roman Martyrology in the Western Church as "Barlaam and Josaphat" on the date of 27 November. Background: the Buddha. The story of Barlaam and Josaphat or Joasaph is a Christianized and later version of the story of Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha. In the Middle Ages the two were treated as Christian saints, being entered in the Greek Orthodox calendar on 26 August, and in the Roman Martyrology in the Western Church as "Barlaam and Josaphat" on the date of 27 November. In the Slavic tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, these two are commemorated on 19 November (corresponding to 2 December on the Gregorian calendar). The first Christianized adaptation was the Georgian epic "Balavariani" dating back to the 10th century. A Georgian monk, Euthymius of Athos, translated the story into Greek, some time before he died in an accident while visiting Constantinople in 1028. There the Greek adaptation was translated into Latin in 1048 and soon became well known in Western Europe as "Barlaam and Josaphat". The Greek legend of "Barlaam and Ioasaph" is sometimes attributed to the 7th century John of Damascus, but Conybeare argued it was transcribed by the Georgian monk Euthymius in the 11th century. The story of Barlaam and Josaphat was popular in the Middle Ages, appearing in such works as the "Golden Legend", and a scene there involving three caskets eventually appeared, via Caxton's English translation of a Latin version, in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice". The poet Chardri produced an Anglo-Norman version, "La vie de seint Josaphaz", in the 13th century. Two Middle High German versions were produced: one, the "Laubacher "Barlaam"", by Bishop Otto II of Freising and another, "Barlaam und Josaphat", a romance in verse, by Rudolf von Ems. The latter was described as "perhaps the flower of religious literary creativity in the German Middle Ages" by Heinrich Heine. The story of Josaphat was re-told as an exploration of free will and the seeking of inner peace through meditation in the 17th century. The legend. According to the legend, King Abenner or Avenier in India persecuted the Christian Church in his realm, founded by the Apostle Thomas. When astrologers predicted that his own son would some day become a Christian, Abenner had the young prince Josaphat isolated from external contact. Despite the imprisonment, Josaphat met the hermit Saint Barlaam and converted to Christianity. Josaphat kept his faith even in the face of his father's anger and persuasion. Eventually Abenner converted, turned over his throne to Josaphat, and retired to the desert to become a hermit. Josaphat himself later abdicated and went into seclusion with his old teacher Barlaam. Name. Ioasaph (Georgian "Iodasaph", Arabic "Yūdhasaf" or "Būdhasaf") is derived from the Sanskrit "Bodhisattva". The Sanskrit word was changed to "Bodisav" in Persian texts in the 6th or 7th century, then to "Budhasaf" or "Yudasaf" in an 8th-century Arabic document (possibly Arabic initial "b" ﺑ changed to "y" ﻳ by duplication of a dot in handwriting). This became "Iodasaph" in Georgia in the 10th century, and that name was adapted as "Ioasaph" in Greece in the 11th century, and then was assimilated to "Iosaphat/Josaphat" in Latin. Feast day. Although Barlaam and Josaphat were never formally canonized, they were included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August in Greek tradition etc. / 19 November in Russian tradition). Texts. There are a large number of different books in various languages, all dealing with the lives of Saints Barlaam and Josaphat in India. In this hagiographic tradition, the life and teachings of Josaphat have many parallels with those of the Buddha. "But not till the mid-nineteenth century was it recognised that, in Josaphat, the Buddha had been venerated as a Christian saint for about a thousand years." The authorship of the work is disputed. The origins of the story seem to be a Central Asian manuscript written in the Manichaean tradition. This book was translated into Georgian and Arabic. Greek manuscripts. The best-known version in Europe comes from a separate, but not wholly independent, source, written in Greek, and, although anonymous, attributed to a monk named John. It was only considerably later that the tradition arose that this was John of Damascus, but most scholars no longer accept this attribution. Instead much evidence points to Euthymius of Athos, a Georgian who died in 1028. The modern edition of the Greek text, from the 160 surviving variant manuscripts (2006), with introduction (German, 2009) is published as Volume 6 of the works of John the Damascene by the monks of the Abbey of Scheyern, edited by Robert Volk. It was included in the edition due to the traditional ascription, but marked "spuria" as the translator is the Georgian monk Euthymius the Hagiorite (ca. 955–1028) at Mount Athos and not John the Damascene of the monastery of Saint Sabas in the Judaean Desert. The 2009 introduction includes an overview. English manuscripts. Among the manuscripts in English, two of the most important are the British Museum "MS Egerton 876" (the basis for Ikegami's book) and "MS Peterhouse 257" (the basis for Hirsh's book) at the University of Cambridge. The book contains a tale similar to The Three Caskets found in the "Gesta Romanorum" and later in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice".

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Christian drama Christian drama is based on Christian religious themes. Mystery play. Through the medieval period churches in Europe frequently performed mystery plays, retelling the stories of the Bible. They developed from the representation of Bible stories in churches with accompanying song. As these liturgical plays became more popular, more vernacular or everyday elements were introduced and non-clergy began to participate. As the dramas became increasingly secular, they began to be performed entirely in the vernacular and were moved out of the churches by the 13th or 14th century. These religious performances were taken over by the guilds, with each guild taking responsibility for a particular piece of scriptural history. From the guild control they gained the name mystery play. The mystery play developed into a series of plays dealing with all the major events in the Christian calendar, from the Creation to the Day of Judgment. By the end of the 15th century, the tradition of acting these plays in cycles on festival days (such as the Feast of Corpus Christi) was established across Europe. Morality play. By the 15th and 16th century the form had developed into the morality play. These were allegories, in which the protagonists met personifications of various moral attributes, the net effect being the encouragement to live a virtuous life. Puritan age. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries theatre was generally seen as wicked, and the church made attempts to suppress it. In the United States condemnation of the theatre was widespread in the eighteenth century; in 1794 President Timothy Dwight IV of Yale College in his "Essay on the Stage" declared that "to indulge a taste for playgoing means nothing more or less than the loss of that most valuable treasure: the immortal soul." Modern. In the twentieth century churches, particularly evangelical churches, rediscovered the use of theatre as a form of outreach and as a valid art form. In Britain in the early twentieth century it was illegal for any human actor to portray a divine personage on stage, placing severe restrictions on Christian theatre. The groundbreaking 1941-1942 radio drama "The Man Born to Be King" shattered this taboo by not only including Jesus as a character but giving him 'ordinary' speech rather than 'biblical' language. (Radio portrayals were not covered by the law, but the piece drew huge complaints nonetheless.) T. S. Eliot's play "Murder in the Cathedral" explored Christian themes of martyrdom and sacrifice as well as church history. In the 1970s, many plays were produced dealing with Christian subjects, notably Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. At approximately the same time, many churches were again turning to drama as a means of outreach, and as a valid art form. Small Christian theatre companies began to spring up in Britain and America. Covenant Players was founded in 1963 to produce Christian plays written by its founder.

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The Messengers (TV series) The Messengers is an American supernatural mystery drama television series that aired on The CW during the 2014–15 season. The series was officially picked up on May 8, 2014, and premiered on April 17, 2015. The series was cancelled by the CW on May 7, 2015, but aired all of its episodes, and concluded on July 24, 2015. Plot. A mysterious object plummets to Earth, sending out a shock wave that causes five strangers to die, only to miraculously come back to life moments later. The members of the group are Vera (Shantel VanSanten), a struggling radio-astronomer living in New Mexico who is searching for her missing son; Erin (Sofia Black-D'Elia), a young mother in Tucson, Arizona who is desperate to protect her seven-year-old daughter Amy from her abusive policeman ex-husband; Peter (Joel Courtney), a troubled high school student and orphan in Little Rock, Arkansas; Raul (J.D. Pardo), a federal agent in Mexico who is looking to escape his dangerous and violent undercover assignment; and Joshua (Jon Fletcher), a charismatic second-generation televangelist in Houston, Texas. Most mysterious of all is the figure known only as The Man (Diogo Morgado), who offers Vera the location of her abducted son if she will help him with one morally complicated task. The task puts her on a collision course with Rose (Anna Diop), a nurse in Houston who has been in a coma for seven years, after being shot by an unknown hitman. Drawn together by fate and biblical prophecy, "The Messengers" soon learn that they now have supernatural gifts which might be the only hope for preventing the impending Rapture. Cast and characters. The Messengers. The main characters of the series are the Messengers (real term: "Angels of the Apocalypse"), a group of ordinary humans chosen by God to determine if humanity is worth saving. They are hit by an energy wave from the meteorite that brought The Man to earth, which causes them to die for a few minutes. Then they awaken with strange supernatural abilities denominated as "gifts". However, their gifts have side-effects on their bodies unless the seven "true" Messengers are united. Army of Hell. Four Horsemen. Every generation there are four people who commit a grievous sin and are "assigned" to become the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Rose Arvale, the Horseman of Death, is the leader of the current generation, and they want to use The Man's meteorite as their ultimate weapon for the end of humanity. In contrast to the angel Messengers, the Horsemen immediately become aware of their powers upon a seal being broken as well as their destiny, and about each other's identity. It is also implied that all four of them are telepathic (only to each other) and can read each other's minds. Reception. Critical reception. "The Messengers" has received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the show a rating of 47% based on 17 reviews with an average rating of 5.6 out of 10. The site's consensus reads: ""The Messengers" flashes bursts of potential, but ultimately sags beneath derivative, muddled storytelling". Metacritic gave the show a score of 56 out of 100, based on 15 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Release. "The Messengers" was scheduled to premiere on April 10, 2015, but was moved back a week to April 17, 2015. In Australia, the series premiered on FOX8 on June 3, 2015.

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Bless Me, Father Bless Me, Father is a British sitcom starring Arthur Lowe, Daniel Abineri, Gabrielle Daye, Patrick McAlinney, David Ryall, and Sheila Keith. It was aired on ITV from 1978 until 1981 and described the adventures of an Irish Catholic priest, Father Charles Duddleswell (Lowe) and his young curate (Abineri) in the fictional parish of St. Jude's in suburban London. Twenty-one episodes, written by Peter De Rosa (who had previously been a novice curate), were aired. De Rosa wrote the books on which the series was based using the pseudonym of Neil Boyd which was also the name of the young curate character; Boyd also served as the narrator in the series of novels upon which the series was based. It was made for the ITV network by London Weekend Television. The series was set in 1950 and 1951 and marked a departure from the middle-class "bank manager" roles associated with Lowe such as that in "Dad's Army". The other regular characters included Mrs Pring (Daye), the housekeeper, the hard-drinking Dr Daley (McAlinney), the non-religious neighbour Billy Buzzle (Ryall), and abbess Reverend Mother Stephen (Keith). Cast. Guest appearances on the series include Derek Francis, Phoebe Nicholls, Daniel Gerroll, Peter Bowles, Clive Swift, Rynagh O'Grady, Michael Troughton, Geoffrey Palmer and Peter Copley. Episodes. The series was repeated from March 2020 on Fox Classics. Home media. The complete series of "Bless Me, Father" has been released on DVD in region 1, region 2 and region 4. In the United States and Canada, "The Complete Collection" was released on 26 April 2005 from Acorn Media. In the United Kingdom, distribution company Network DVD released the complete series on 6 August 2007. In Australia, the complete series was released on 11 March 2015 via distribution company Reel DVD. Book series. Peter De Rosa, formerly an ordained Catholic priest and lecturer, left the priesthood in 1970 and later became a full-time author. Under the pen-name Neil Boyd he wrote the "Bless Me, Father" novels from which the TV series was adapted.

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Amish romance Amish romance is a literary subgenre of Christian fiction featuring Amish characters, but written and read mostly by evangelical Christian women. An industry term for Amish romance novels is "bonnet rippers" because most feature a woman in a bonnet on the cover, and "bonnet ripper" is a play on the term "bodice ripper" from classic romance novels. History. The genre has proven lucrative for publishers, many of which are Christian publishers, such as Bethany House, Thomas Nelson, and Zondervan. The first commercially successful Amish romance novel, according to writer Valerie Weaver-Zercher, was Beverly Lewis' "The Shunning", published in 1997 by Bethany House. In addition, over 150 Amish fiction e-books were self-published between 2010 and 2013. The three most successful authors of Amish romance—Beverly Lewis, Cindy Woodsmall, and Wanda Brunstetter—have sold over 24 million books. While primarily written for and marketed to adult readers, some young adult Amish romance titles have been published as well. According to a September 2013 "Library Journal" survey, Amish fiction is the most commonly carried subgenre of Christian fiction in public libraries, although the survey did not distinguish between Amish romance and other Amish-themed literature. Themes. Most works of Amish romance have protagonists with socially conservative values, especially chastity, who engage in romance in ways which are socially and religiously acceptable in their communities. Similar works may also feature other religious minorities, such as Mennonites, Shakers, or Puritans. Unlike many mainstream romance novels, Amish romance novels do not rely on the portrayal of sex and most other forms of physical intimacy. "Despite the suggestion by some that the appeal of Amish fiction must lie in the arousal of coverings coming off, or suspenders being suspended — hence the coy industry term 'bonnet rippers' — most Amish novels are as different from Fifty Shades of Grey as a cape dress is from a spiked collar." Reception. Reactions to works of Amish romance among the Amish themselves range from baffled (by things like deadly buggy accident themes) to repulsed (by evangelical notions of personal relationships with Jesus Christ which are inconsistent with the Amish view of salvation). Some argue that the non-Amish authors fail to understand Amish theology and how it differs in key areas from mainstream Christianity. They thus present characters who may appear Amish but who maintain an evangelical Christian worldview. For example, a character might proclaim an assurance of salvation, rather than a "living hope" of such as the Amish do. Amish specific beliefs such as non-violence, non participation in government, and an unwillingness to proselytize may be glossed over or not mentioned. Evangelical themes, such as sexual purity, are substituted.

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Young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is targeted to adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate with the age and experience of the protagonist. The genres available in YA are expansive and include most of those found in adult fiction. Common themes related to YA include friendship, first love, relationships, and identity. Stories that focus on the specific challenges of youth are sometimes referred to as problem novels or coming-of-age novels. Young adult fiction was developed to soften the transition between children's novels and adult literature. History. Beginning. The history of young adult literature is tied to the history of how childhood and young adulthood has been perceived. One early writer to recognize young adults as a distinct group was Sarah Trimmer, who, in 1802, described "young adulthood" as lasting from ages 14 to 21. In her children's literature periodical, "The Guardian of Education", Trimmer introduced the terms "Books for Children" (for those under fourteen) and "Books for Young Persons" (for those between fourteen and twenty-one), establishing terms of reference for young adult literature that still remain in use. Nineteenth and early twentieth century authors present several early works that appealed to young readers, though not necessarily written for them such as Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Francis Hodgson Burnett, Edith Nesbit, JM Barrie, L. Frank Baum, Astrid Lindgren, Enid Blyton, CS Lewis. 20th century. In the 1950s, "The Catcher in the Rye" (1951), attracted the attention of the adolescent demographic although it was written for adults. The themes of adolescent angst and alienation in the novel have become synonymous with young adult literature. The modern classification of young-adult fiction originated during the 1960s, after the publication of S. E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" (1967). The novel features a truer, darker side of adolescent life that was not often represented in works of fiction of the time, and was the first novel published specifically marketed for young adults as Hinton was one when she wrote it. Written during high school and published when Hinton was only 16, "The Outsiders" also lacked the nostalgic tone common in books about adolescents written by adults. "The Outsiders" remains one of the best-selling young adult novels of all time. The 1960s became the era "when the 'under 30' generation became a subject of popular concern, and research on adolescence began to emerge. It was also the decade when literature for adolescents could be said to have come into its own". This increased the discussions about adolescent experiences and the new idea of adolescent authors. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, what has come to be known as the "fab five" were published: "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969), an autobiography of the early years of American poet Maya Angelou; "The Friends" (1973) by Rosa Guy; the semi-autobiographical "The Bell Jar" (US 1963, under a pseudonym; UK 1967) by poet Sylvia Plath; "Bless the Beasts and Children" (1970) by Glendon Swarthout; and "Deathwatch" (1972) by Robb White, which was awarded 1973 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery by the Mystery Writers of America. The works of Angelou, Guy, and Plath were not written for young readers. As publishers began to focus on the emerging adolescent market, booksellers and libraries began creating young adult sections distinct from children's literature and novels written for adults. The 1970s to the mid-1980s have been described as the golden age of young-adult fiction, when challenging novels began speaking directly to the interests of the identified adolescent market. In the 1980s, young adult literature began pushing the envelope in terms of the subject matter that was considered appropriate for their audience: Books dealing with topics such as rape, suicide, parental death, and murder which had previously been deemed taboo, saw significant critical and commercial success. A flip-side of this trend was a strong revived interest in the romance novel, including young adult romance. With an increase in number of teenagers the genre "matured, blossomed, and came into its own, with the better written, more serious, and more varied young adult books (than those) published during the last two decades". The first novel in J.K. Rowling's seven-book "Harry Potter" series, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", was published in 1997. The series was praised for its complexity and maturity, and attracted a wide adult audience. While not technically YA, its success led many to see Harry Potter and its author, J.K. Rowling, as responsible for a resurgence of young adult literature, and re-established the pre-eminent role of speculative fiction in the field, a trend further solidified by "The Hunger Games" trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The end of the decade saw a number of awards appear such as the Michael L. Printz Award and Alex Awards, designed to recognize excellence in writing for young adult audiences. The category of young adult fiction continues to expand into other media and genres: graphic novels/manga, light novels, fantasy, mystery fiction, romance novels, and even subcategories such as cyberpunk, techno-thrillers, and contemporary Christian fiction. 21st century. Since about 2017, issues related to diversity and sensitivity in English-language young adult fiction have become increasingly contentious. Fans frequently criticize authors – including those who themselves belong to minorities – for "appropriating" or wrongly portraying the experiences of minority or disadvantaged groups. Publishers have withdrawn several planned young adult novels from publication after they met with pushback on these grounds from readers on websites such as Goodreads. Authors have reported harassment, demands to cease writing, and death threats over social media. To prevent offending readers, publishers increasingly, though with mixed success, employ "sensitivity readers" to screen texts for material that could cause offense. Themes. Many young adult novels feature coming-of-age stories. These feature adolescents beginning to transform into adults, working through personal problems, and learning to take responsibility for their actions. YA serves many literary purposes. It provides a pleasurable reading experience for young people, emphasizing real-life experiences and problems in easier-to-grasp ways, and depicts societal functions. An analysis of YA novels between 1980 and 2000 found seventeen expansive literary themes. The most common of these were friendship, getting into trouble, romantic and sexual interest, and family life. Other common thematic elements revolve around the coming-of-age nature of the texts. This includes narratives about self-identity, life and death, and individuality. Genre. There are no distinguishable differences in genre styles between YA fiction and adult fiction. Some of the most common YA genres include contemporary fiction, fantasy, romance, and dystopian. Genre-blending, more commonly known as cross-genre, which is the combination of multiple genres into one work, is also common in YA. Problem novels. "Social-problem" novels or problem novels are a sub-genre of literature focusing and commenting on overarching social problems. They are typically a type of realistic fiction that characteristically depict contemporary issues such as poverty, drugs, and pregnancy. Published in 1967, S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" is often credited as the first problem novel. Following this release, problem novels were popularized and dominated during the 1970s. Sheila Egoff described three reasons why problem novels resonate with adolescents: A classic example of a problem novel and one that defined the sub-genre is "Go Ask Alice" by Anonymous (pseudonym for Beatrice Sparks) published in 1971. "Go Ask Alice" is written in first-person as the diary of a young girl who experiences a lot of problems while growing up. In order to cope with her problems, the protagonist begins experimenting with drugs. Modern examples of problem novels include "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson", Crank" by Ellen Hopkins, and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky. Boundaries between children's, young adult, and adult fiction. The distinctions among children's literature, young adult literature, and adult literature have historically been flexible and loosely defined. This line is often policed by adults who feel strongly about the border. At the lower end of the age spectrum, fiction targeted to readers age 8-12 is referred to as middle-grade fiction. Some novels originally marketed to adults are of interest and value to adolescents, and vice versa, as in the case of books such as the "Harry Potter" series of novels. Some examples of middle grade novels and novel series include the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series by Rick Riordan, "The Underland Chronicles" by Suzanne Collins, and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney. Some examples of young adult novels and novel series include the "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling, "The Hunger Games" trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and the "Mortal Instruments" series by Cassandra Clare. Middle grade novels are typically for the ages of 8–12. They tend to have an ATOS level of 5.0 or below, have a smaller word count, and are significantly less mature and complex in theme and content than YA, NA, or adult fiction. Young adult novels are for the ages of 12–18. They tend to have an ATOS level of 5.0 or above, have a larger word count, and tackle more mature and adult themes and content. Middle grade novels usually feature protagonists under the age of 13, whereas young adult novels usually feature protagonists within the age range of 12–18. Uses in the classroom. YA has been integrated into classrooms to increase student interest in reading. There is a common misconception that YA lit is solely for "struggling" or "reluctant" readers and should be reserved for remedial classes. Studies have shown that YA can be beneficial in classroom settings. YA fiction is written for young adults and so it is often more relevant to students' social and emotional needs than is classic literature. Use of YA in classrooms is linked to: Students who read YA are more likely to appreciate literature and have stronger reading skills than others. YA also allows teachers to talk about "taboo" or difficult topics with their students. For example, a 2014 study shows that using Laurie Halse Anderson's novel "Speak" aided in discussions on consent and complicity. Those who read about tough situations like date rape are more emotionally prepared to handle the situation if it arises. It is important to use diverse literature in the classroom, especially in discussing taboo topics, to avoid excluding minority students. Literature written for young adults can also be used as a stepping stone to canonical works that are traditionally read in classrooms, and required by many school curriculums. In "Building a Culture of Readers: YA Literature and the Canon" by Kara Lycke, Lycke suggests pairing young adult literature and canon works to prepare young adults to understand the classic literature they will encounter. YA can provide familiar and less alienating examples of similar concepts than those in classic literature. Suggested pairings include Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson" series with the Iliad or the Odyssey, or Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" with "Wuthering Heights". When discussing identity, Lycke suggests pairing Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" with Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian." Diversity. English language young adult fiction and children's literature in general have historically shown a lack of books with a main character who is a person of color, LGBT, or disabled. In the UK 90% of the best-selling YA titles from 2006 to 2016 featured white, able-bodied, cis-gendered, and heterosexual main characters. The numbers of children's book authors have shown a similar lack of diversity. Between 2006–2016, eight percent of all young adult authors published in the UK were people of color. Diversity is considered beneficial since it encourages children of diverse backgrounds to read and it teaches children of all backgrounds an accurate view of the world around them. In the mid-2010s, more attention was drawn to this problem from various quarters. In the several years following, diversity numbers seem to have improved: One survey showed that in 2017, a quarter of children's books were about minority protagonists, almost a 10% increase from 2016.

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Fragmentary novel A fragmentary novel is a novel made of fragments, vignettes, segments, documents or chapters that can be read in isolation and/or as part of the greater whole of the book. These novels typically lack a traditional plot or set of characters and often are the product of a cultural crisis The oldest fragmentary novels are part of the (proto)-picaresque novel tradition. Some of these fragmented novels are also categorized as short story collections or epistolary novels. Some fragmentary novels are (posthumously) published unfinished novels or are partly lost novels.

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Northern (genre) The Northern or Northwestern is a genre in various arts that tell stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the north of North America, primarily in Canada but also in Alaska. It is similar to the Western genre, but many elements are different, as appropriate to its setting. It is common for the central character to be a Mountie instead of a cowboy or sheriff. Other common characters include fur trappers and traders, lumberjacks, prospectors, First Nations people, settlers, and townsfolk. International interest in the region and the genre was fuelled by the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99) and subsequent works surrounding it, fiction and non-fiction. The genre was extremely popular in the interwar period of the 20th century. Northerns are still produced, but their popularity waned in the late 1950s. Characteristics. Northerns are similar to westerns but are set in the frozen north of North America; that is, Canada or Alaska. Of the two, Canada was the most common setting, although many tropes could apply to both. Popular locations within Canada are the Yukon, the Barren Grounds, and area around Hudson Bay. Generic names used for this general setting included the "Far North", the "Northlands", the "North Woods", and the "Great Woods". Common settings include boreal forests, isolated cabins, and mining towns. Snow featured to such an extent that Northern films were sometimes termed "snow pictures". Animals were a common feature too. Dogs and dog sleds were popularized by "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang". Scenes involving attacks by bears date back to "The Klondyke Nugget". The primary antagonist in a Northern can be the wilderness, the weather and other natural elements, which the protagonists must endure, overcome and survive. Northerns often explore the 'Matter of Canada' (the national mythos of Canada, after the Matter of Rome). Common elements of which are the Black Donnelly murders (February 1880), the North-West Rebellion (1885), the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99), the pursuit of Albert Johnson (January 1932), the October Crisis (October 1970), and persistent national anxiety about potential annexation by the United States. The Western idea of lawlessness set in American towns was not a part of the Canadian Northern, though individual lawbreakers or uprisings by Canadians feature in works such as "Quebec" (1951), "Riel" (1979), and "Northwest Mounted Police" (1940). In Northerns and wider crime fiction, the general Canadian preference is for law enforcement to be performed by the state rather than vigilantes or private investigators. Likewise, Northerns rarely feature the heroic outlaws often found in Westerns. On the subject, David Skene-Melvin writes "Canada never had a Wild West because the Mounties got there first," while Margaret Atwood writes "No outlaws or lawless men for Canada; if one appears, the Mounties always get their man." Law and order in Northerns set in Canada is most often represented by the Mounties, either the North-West Mounted Police or Royal Canadian Mounted Police depending on era. Like snow, Mounties are a common enough feature to become a synonym for the genre, with Northern films sometimes called "Mountie films". Their popularity was not confined to film; by 1930, 75 volumes of written Mountie fiction had been published, not including juvenile fiction and material published in magazines. Where a protagonist in a Western is often part of both civilization and the wild (whether native or criminal), Mounties in Northerns are entirely a part of civilization. The nature of fictional Mounties can vary depending on the nationality of the author. Mounties as written by British authors are often younger members of upper class British families serving the British Empire in the colonies. American-authored Mounties are often little different from US Marshalls and project the values of Westerns in that they place their individual sense of justice and conscience above their duty to the law. Canadian-authored Mounties represent, and are self-abnegating champions of, the Canadian establishment and its laws. Further, their authority does not come from either their social class or physical abilities; such a Mountie "upholds the law by moral rather than physical force". A common story outline for Northerns involving Mounties is a pursuit, confrontation and capture: the Mountie's pursuit of a fugitive takes place across the Canadian wilderness and may be resolved non-violently. According to Pierre Berton "the French-Canadian was to the northerns what the Mexican was to the westerns — an exotic primitive, adaptable as a chameleon to play a hero or a heavy." French-Canadians were a ubiquitous element of the genre. As characters, French-Canadians are typically depicted as rustic and uneducated. These characters were usually divided into two broad types: the heroic, happy-go-lucky bon-vivant and the villainous, lecherous killer. Some later examples merged the two stereotypes into a charming, roguish anti-villain. Common visual elements were a tuque, a sash and a pipe. All were present in the first appearance in film, in "A Woman's Way" (1908). Female French-Canadian characters also followed the "tempestuous" stereotype of female Mexican characters. Mexican actress Lupe Vélez, in line with her identity as "The Mexican Spitfire", played the title character in "Tiger Rose" (1929) in this mode; as did Renée Adorée in "The Eternal Struggle" (1923) and Nikki Duval in "Quebec" (1951). A common anachronism in Northerns was the tyranny and absolute power of the Hudson's Bay Company and its officers, even into the modern period. This was repeated not just in fiction but by reviewers and critics too. The concept of "La Longue Traverse", or the Journey of Death, comes from "The Call of the North" (1914) and was popular in later films. In this, the Hudson's Bay Company executes convicts by forcing them into the wilderness without equipment or supplies. In 1921, the Hudson's Bay Company successfully sued the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation for the villainous portrayal of their Company in the latters' remake "The Call of the North". Alaska Natives or Métis are featured in some depictions. Besides being set in Canadian Prairies, the stories often contrast the American frontier with the Canadian frontier in several ways. In films such as "Pony Soldier" and "Saskatchewan" the North-West Mounted Police display reason, compassion and a sense of fair play in their dealings with Aboriginal people (First Nations) as opposed to hotheaded American visitors (often criminals), lawmen or the American Army who seem to prefer extermination with violence. History. David Skene-Melvin classes the "second period" of Canadian crime literature (1880–1920), as "the heyday of the 'Northern' and the literary exploration of Canada's remote and romantic frontiers." He refers to Joseph Edmund Collins as an important figure in this period because, despite his work being of low quality, he was the first Canadian author to address some aspects of the 'Matter of Canada' in his novels, such as "The Story of Louis Riel: The Rebel Chief" (1885) and "Annette, the Métis Spy" (1886). Northerns continued to be written after 1920 but Canadian authors largely moved to other genres after World War I as they moved away from a frontier and colonial ethos. The Klondike Gold Rush during the 1890s in Canada and Alaska brought a lot of wider, international attention to the far north of North America. Adventure novels from veterans of the gold rush—such as Jack London's "The Call of the Wild" (1903), Rex Beach's "The Spoilers" (1906) and Robert W. Service's "The Trail of Ninety-Eight" (1909)—became best sellers. These inspired more adventure fiction which grew in popularity throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The genre was extremely popular in the inter-war years, with a "Mountie craze" hitting its peak during the mid-1920s. A large amount of Northern fiction is the work of non-Canadians. Nevertheless, Skene-Melvin writes "Just as the Western is widely regarded as emblematic of American culture, it can be argued that the Northern is the only truly indigenous Canadian art form, even if most of its exponents have been foreigners." One of the earliest international examples of the genre is the British play "The Klondyke Nugget", which was first performed in 1898. Its author, Samuel Franklin Cody initially wrote it as a Western but changed the location to capitalize on the contemporary gold rush. Charlie Chaplin's 1925 film "The Gold Rush" is a comedy that parodies some of the cliches of the Northern genre. The Looney Tunes character Blacque Jacque Shellacque, who first appeared in the 1959 short "Bonanza Bunny", is another parody. While the Hollywood Western began to change in the post-World War II era and the Western myth was eventually debunked, Hollywood Northerns remained unchanged until they stopped being produced in the late 1950s and the underlying mythology was never examined.

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Ethnofiction Ethnofiction refers to a subfield of ethnography which produces works that introduces art, in the form of storytelling, "thick descriptions and conversational narratives", and even first-person autobiographical accounts, into peer-reviewed academic works. In addition to written texts, the term has also been used in the context of filmmaking, where it refers to ethnographic docufiction, a blend of documentary and fictional film in the area of visual anthropology. It is a film type in which, by means of fictional narrative or creative imagination, often improvising, the portrayed characters (natives) play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group. Jean Rouch is considered to be the father of ethnofiction. An ethnologist, he discovered that a filmmaker interferes with the event he registers. His camera is never a "candid camera". The behavior of the portrayed individuals, the natives, will be affected by its presence. Contrary to the principles of Marcel Griaule, his mentor, for Rouch a non-participating camera registering "pure" events in ethnographic research (like filming a ritual without interfering with it) is a preconception denied by practice. An ethnographer cameraman, in this view, will be accepted as a natural partner by the actors who play their roles. The cameraman will be one of them, and may even be possessed by the rhythm of dancers during a ritual celebration and induced in a state of "cine-trance". Going further than his predecessors, Jean Rouch introduces the actor as a tool in research. A new genre was born. Robert Flaherty, a main reference for Rouch, may be seen as the grandfather of this genre, although he was a pure documentary maker and not an ethnographer. Being mainly used to refer to ethnographic films as an object of visual anthropology, the term ethnofiction is as well adequate to refer to experimental documentaries preceding and following Rouch's oeuvre and to any fictional creation in human communication, arts or literature, having an ethnographic or social background. History. Parallel to those of Flaherty or Rouch, ethnic portraits of hard local realities are often drawn in Portuguese films since the thirties, with particular incidence from the sixties to the eighties, and again in the early 21st century. The remote Trás-os-Montes region (see: Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro Province in Portugal), Guinea-Bissau or the Cape Verde islands (ancient Portuguese colonies), which step in the limelights from the eighties on thanks to the work of certain directors (Flora Gomes, Pedro Costa, or Daniel E. Thorbecke, the unknown author of Terra Longe) are themes for pioneering films of this genre, important landmarks in film history. Arousing fiction in the heart of ethnicity is something current in the Portuguese popular narrative (oral literature): in other words, the traditional attraction for legend and surrealistic imagery in popular arts inspires certain Portuguese films to strip off realistic predicates and become poetical fiction. This practice is common to many fictional films by Manoel de Oliveira and João César Monteiro and to several docufiction hybrids by António Campos, António Reis and others. Since the 1960s, ethnofiction (local real life and fantasy in one) is a distinctive mark of Portuguese cinema.