Author: G. West Piggott
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3375156421
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 106
Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1858.
On Poverty of the Blood
Author: G. West Piggott
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3375156421
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 106
Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1858.
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3375156421
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 106
Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1858.
Blood, Bullets And Bodies
Author: Imani M. Tafari-Ama
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
ISBN: 1786451379
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
Fifth Edition The true story of Blood, Bullets and Bodies: a critical multimedia exposé about the factors subverting the political will to act in the best interest of the poor, even when explicit just cause exists for such altruistic action to take place… Blood, Bullets and Bodies is a strange and paradoxical story that needs to be read as much as it needs to be told. It is a riveting story of sex, violence, political intrigue and survival by any means necessary. The book is a literary mirror that provides a revealing and frightening reflection for a self-destructing society to see itself profiled in the throes of its own possible demise. Sure to stir controversy, the new book contains a compelling rendition of the historical circumstances that have made crime and violence – bullets, blood and dead bodies – the number one problem in late 20th and early 21st century Jamaica. Despite the historic One Love Peace Concert and the Peace Truce in 1978, young gunmen seem to have gone wild ever since. Using a variety of sophisticated methodological tools including literary sources, oral interviews, ethnographic studies and the lyrics of popular Reggae songs, Imani Tafari-Ama details the influences and implications of this violent social discourse for everyday performances of femininity and masculinity in Kingston’s inner-city environment as well as in the wider Jamaican society. Tafari-Ama’s stated objective in publishing her thesis as a book is to separate fact from fiction in order to find real and enduring solutions that will reduce the distressing flood of blood, bullets and bodies that is overflowing the streets of Kingston. She hopes that by highlighting some of the facts and exposing much of the fiction about life below the poverty line, her provocative book will be a catalyst in motivating the political and community willpower necessary to find and implement the real-time solutions that she proposes in her suggested Options for Development.
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
ISBN: 1786451379
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
Fifth Edition The true story of Blood, Bullets and Bodies: a critical multimedia exposé about the factors subverting the political will to act in the best interest of the poor, even when explicit just cause exists for such altruistic action to take place… Blood, Bullets and Bodies is a strange and paradoxical story that needs to be read as much as it needs to be told. It is a riveting story of sex, violence, political intrigue and survival by any means necessary. The book is a literary mirror that provides a revealing and frightening reflection for a self-destructing society to see itself profiled in the throes of its own possible demise. Sure to stir controversy, the new book contains a compelling rendition of the historical circumstances that have made crime and violence – bullets, blood and dead bodies – the number one problem in late 20th and early 21st century Jamaica. Despite the historic One Love Peace Concert and the Peace Truce in 1978, young gunmen seem to have gone wild ever since. Using a variety of sophisticated methodological tools including literary sources, oral interviews, ethnographic studies and the lyrics of popular Reggae songs, Imani Tafari-Ama details the influences and implications of this violent social discourse for everyday performances of femininity and masculinity in Kingston’s inner-city environment as well as in the wider Jamaican society. Tafari-Ama’s stated objective in publishing her thesis as a book is to separate fact from fiction in order to find real and enduring solutions that will reduce the distressing flood of blood, bullets and bodies that is overflowing the streets of Kingston. She hopes that by highlighting some of the facts and exposing much of the fiction about life below the poverty line, her provocative book will be a catalyst in motivating the political and community willpower necessary to find and implement the real-time solutions that she proposes in her suggested Options for Development.
Partner to the Poor
Author: Paul Farmer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520257111
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 678
Book Description
"Dr. Paul Farmer is one of the most extraordinary people I've ever known. Partner to the Poor recounts his relentless efforts to eradicate disease, humanize health care, alleviate poverty, and increase opportunity and empowerment in the developing world. It will inspire us all to do our parts."--William J. Clinton "If the world is curious about Paul Farmer, there is a reason for that. No one has done more than he has in bringing modern medicine to the poor across the globe and no one has exceeded him in making us appreciate the diverse barriers that prevent proper medicine from reaching the underdogs of the world. In this wonderful collection of essays, putting together Paul Farmer's writings over more than two decades, we can see how his far-reaching ideas have developed and radically enhanced the understanding of the challenges faced by healthcare in the uneven world in which we live. This is an altogether outstanding book."--Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate, Economics "To delve into these pages is to join one of the world's great explorers on an epic life journey--to grapple with culture, poverty, disease, health care, ethics, and ultimately our common humanity in the Age of AIDS. Paul Farmer is a pioneer, guide, and inspiration at a time of unprecedented contrasts: between wealth and poverty, power and powerlessness, health and disease, compassion and neglect. His medical expertise, anthropological vision, and unflinching decency have helped to recharge our world with moral purpose."--Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University "Wow! Perfect for teaching. This is more than vintage Farmer. Editor Haun Saussy knows Farmer's work inside out and has assembled and organized 25 classic articles that project the heart of Farmer's brilliant, radical, inspiring, eminently practical and (dare I say) genuinely subversive work."--Philippe Bourgois, author of Righteous Dopefiend "If they gave Nobel Prizes for raising moral awareness, Paul Farmer would have won his a long time ago. For several decades now, his work has posed a challenge to anyone who dares say that radically improving the health of the world's poor can't be done. This splendid compilation of the best of his work allows us to follow a restless, creative, compassionate mind in action, in and out of prisons and barrios and mud huts and hospital wards, from Haiti to Rwanda to Moscow, never taking 'no' for an answer."--Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains "Paul Farmer is a deep scholar of Haitian society, a formidable medical anthropologist, an implacable theorist of structural violence and health as a human right, and an ethicist for whom the place of social justice in medicine and in the world is an existential need. This book is the platform of interconnected intellectual, academic, and practical engagements upon which the amazing, world-transforming life of Farmer stands."--Arthur Kleinman, author of What Really Matters: Living a Moral Life amidst Uncertainty and Danger "This collection shows the impressive catalytic effects of original scholarship when combined with action, activism, and a commitment to social justice in health. Paul Farmer and his PIH colleagues have twice changed World Health Organization policies; they continue to have a lasting impact on the global health movement and on the lives of the poor.--Peter Brown, Emory University
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520257111
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 678
Book Description
"Dr. Paul Farmer is one of the most extraordinary people I've ever known. Partner to the Poor recounts his relentless efforts to eradicate disease, humanize health care, alleviate poverty, and increase opportunity and empowerment in the developing world. It will inspire us all to do our parts."--William J. Clinton "If the world is curious about Paul Farmer, there is a reason for that. No one has done more than he has in bringing modern medicine to the poor across the globe and no one has exceeded him in making us appreciate the diverse barriers that prevent proper medicine from reaching the underdogs of the world. In this wonderful collection of essays, putting together Paul Farmer's writings over more than two decades, we can see how his far-reaching ideas have developed and radically enhanced the understanding of the challenges faced by healthcare in the uneven world in which we live. This is an altogether outstanding book."--Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate, Economics "To delve into these pages is to join one of the world's great explorers on an epic life journey--to grapple with culture, poverty, disease, health care, ethics, and ultimately our common humanity in the Age of AIDS. Paul Farmer is a pioneer, guide, and inspiration at a time of unprecedented contrasts: between wealth and poverty, power and powerlessness, health and disease, compassion and neglect. His medical expertise, anthropological vision, and unflinching decency have helped to recharge our world with moral purpose."--Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University "Wow! Perfect for teaching. This is more than vintage Farmer. Editor Haun Saussy knows Farmer's work inside out and has assembled and organized 25 classic articles that project the heart of Farmer's brilliant, radical, inspiring, eminently practical and (dare I say) genuinely subversive work."--Philippe Bourgois, author of Righteous Dopefiend "If they gave Nobel Prizes for raising moral awareness, Paul Farmer would have won his a long time ago. For several decades now, his work has posed a challenge to anyone who dares say that radically improving the health of the world's poor can't be done. This splendid compilation of the best of his work allows us to follow a restless, creative, compassionate mind in action, in and out of prisons and barrios and mud huts and hospital wards, from Haiti to Rwanda to Moscow, never taking 'no' for an answer."--Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains "Paul Farmer is a deep scholar of Haitian society, a formidable medical anthropologist, an implacable theorist of structural violence and health as a human right, and an ethicist for whom the place of social justice in medicine and in the world is an existential need. This book is the platform of interconnected intellectual, academic, and practical engagements upon which the amazing, world-transforming life of Farmer stands."--Arthur Kleinman, author of What Really Matters: Living a Moral Life amidst Uncertainty and Danger "This collection shows the impressive catalytic effects of original scholarship when combined with action, activism, and a commitment to social justice in health. Paul Farmer and his PIH colleagues have twice changed World Health Organization policies; they continue to have a lasting impact on the global health movement and on the lives of the poor.--Peter Brown, Emory University
The Book of Blood and Shadow
Author: Robin Wasserman
Publisher: Ember
ISBN: 0375872779
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466
Book Description
While working on a project translating letters from sixteenth-century Prague, high school senior Nora Kane discovers her best friend murdered with her boyfriend the apparent killer and is caught up in a dangerous web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all searching for a mysterious ancient device purported to allow direct communication with God.
Publisher: Ember
ISBN: 0375872779
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466
Book Description
While working on a project translating letters from sixteenth-century Prague, high school senior Nora Kane discovers her best friend murdered with her boyfriend the apparent killer and is caught up in a dangerous web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all searching for a mysterious ancient device purported to allow direct communication with God.
When Helping Hurts
Author: Steve Corbett
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802487629
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Book Description
With more than 450,000 copies in print, When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation. Poverty is much more than simply a lack of material resources, and it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve it. When Helping Hurts shows how some alleviation efforts, failing to consider the complexities of poverty, have actually (and unintentionally) done more harm than good. But it looks ahead. It encourages us to see the dignity in everyone, to empower the materially poor, and to know that we are all uniquely needy—and that God in the gospel is reconciling all things to himself. Focusing on both North American and Majority World contexts, When Helping Hurts provides proven strategies for effective poverty alleviation, catalyzing the idea that sustainable change comes not from the outside in, but from the inside out.
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802487629
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Book Description
With more than 450,000 copies in print, When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation. Poverty is much more than simply a lack of material resources, and it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve it. When Helping Hurts shows how some alleviation efforts, failing to consider the complexities of poverty, have actually (and unintentionally) done more harm than good. But it looks ahead. It encourages us to see the dignity in everyone, to empower the materially poor, and to know that we are all uniquely needy—and that God in the gospel is reconciling all things to himself. Focusing on both North American and Majority World contexts, When Helping Hurts provides proven strategies for effective poverty alleviation, catalyzing the idea that sustainable change comes not from the outside in, but from the inside out.
Blessings of the Blood
Author: Celu Amberstone
Publisher: Rituals
ISBN: 9781990581038
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
"I have heard a call across a million years. I will answer it." Here is a book of women's rituals surrounding and embracing menstruation. With sensitivity, author Celu Amberstone gathers prayers and spiritual experiences from women celebrating their bodies and their profoundly personal experiences. Readers looking to support personal identity and strengthen a sense of community will find much of interest in Blessings of the Blood: a Book of Menstrual Lore and Rituals for Women. "May the works of your hands and the meditations of your heart be healing." This edition is a new release of a celebrated book previously released in 1991 from Beach Holme Press. For years, readers eagerly sought the book through used book dealers. Celu Amberstone and Kashallan Press are proud to release this new edition by popular request. Blessings of the Blood is available in an affordable ebook version for the first time, to complement the handsome trade paperback. For anyone interested in possibly feeling better about their blood, I highly recommend the book "Blessings Of The Blood" By Celu Amberstone. It is a wonderful book with personal stories of menarche, menopause and creativeness. It really opened my eyes to just how sacred and beautiful our blood is. -review on Mum website This is one of the best books on the subject of menstruation, and I wish they would reissue Celu's masterpiece! Filled with anecdotes, storytelling and empathy. -SMB, review on Amazon
Publisher: Rituals
ISBN: 9781990581038
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
"I have heard a call across a million years. I will answer it." Here is a book of women's rituals surrounding and embracing menstruation. With sensitivity, author Celu Amberstone gathers prayers and spiritual experiences from women celebrating their bodies and their profoundly personal experiences. Readers looking to support personal identity and strengthen a sense of community will find much of interest in Blessings of the Blood: a Book of Menstrual Lore and Rituals for Women. "May the works of your hands and the meditations of your heart be healing." This edition is a new release of a celebrated book previously released in 1991 from Beach Holme Press. For years, readers eagerly sought the book through used book dealers. Celu Amberstone and Kashallan Press are proud to release this new edition by popular request. Blessings of the Blood is available in an affordable ebook version for the first time, to complement the handsome trade paperback. For anyone interested in possibly feeling better about their blood, I highly recommend the book "Blessings Of The Blood" By Celu Amberstone. It is a wonderful book with personal stories of menarche, menopause and creativeness. It really opened my eyes to just how sacred and beautiful our blood is. -review on Mum website This is one of the best books on the subject of menstruation, and I wish they would reissue Celu's masterpiece! Filled with anecdotes, storytelling and empathy. -SMB, review on Amazon
In the Blood
Author: Suzan-Lori Parks
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Inc
ISBN: 9780822217565
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 84
Book Description
THE STORY: In this modern day riff on The Scarlet Letter , Hester La Negrita, a homeless mother of five, lives with her kids on the tough streets of the inner city. Her eldest child is teaching her how to read and write, but the letter A is
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Inc
ISBN: 9780822217565
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 84
Book Description
THE STORY: In this modern day riff on The Scarlet Letter , Hester La Negrita, a homeless mother of five, lives with her kids on the tough streets of the inner city. Her eldest child is teaching her how to read and write, but the letter A is
Factfulness
Author: Hans Rosling
Publisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 125012381X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “One of the most important books I’ve ever read—an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates “Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” —Melinda Gates "Factfulness by Hans Rosling, an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases." - Former U.S. President Barack Obama Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. --- “This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance...Previously I armed myself with huge data sets, eye-opening software, an energetic learning style and a Swedish bayonet for sword-swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope this book will be.” Hans Rosling, February 2017.
Publisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 125012381X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “One of the most important books I’ve ever read—an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates “Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” —Melinda Gates "Factfulness by Hans Rosling, an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases." - Former U.S. President Barack Obama Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. --- “This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance...Previously I armed myself with huge data sets, eye-opening software, an energetic learning style and a Swedish bayonet for sword-swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope this book will be.” Hans Rosling, February 2017.
Nine Pints
Author: Rose George
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 162779638X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230
Book Description
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist: A “compelling chronicle” of the science, politics, and business of blood (The Wall Street Journal). Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections. Each one of us has roughly nine pints of it, yet many don’t even know their own blood type. And for all its ubiquitousness, the few tablespoons of blood discharged by 800 million women are still regarded as taboo: menstruation is perhaps the single most demonized biological event. Rose George, author of The Big Necessity, takes us from ancient practices of bloodletting to the breakthrough of the “liquid biopsy,” which promises to diagnose cancer and other diseases with a simple blood test. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the world’s first system of mass blood donation during the Blitz, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, known as “Menstrual Man” for his work on sanitary pads for developing countries. She probes the lucrative business of plasma transfusions, in which the US is known as the “OPEC of plasma.” And she looks to the future, as researchers seek to bring synthetic blood to a hospital near you. Spanning science and politics, individual’s stories and global epidemics, Nine Pints reveals our life’s blood in an entirely new light. One of Bill Gates’ Recommended Summer Reading Titles “Stellar . . . An informative, elegant, and provocative exploration of the life-giving substance . . . A wondrously well-written work.” —Booklist (starred review) Both fascinating and informative . . . George packs her book with the kinds of provocative, witty, and rigorously reported facts and stories sure to make readers view the integral fluid coursing through our veins in a whole new way.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “George charges down wholly unexpected avenues of medical history and global injustice, leaving the reader by turns giddy and appalled. And always, always in awe of the writing.” —Mary Roach, author of Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War “A very good book.” —The New York Times
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 162779638X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230
Book Description
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist: A “compelling chronicle” of the science, politics, and business of blood (The Wall Street Journal). Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections. Each one of us has roughly nine pints of it, yet many don’t even know their own blood type. And for all its ubiquitousness, the few tablespoons of blood discharged by 800 million women are still regarded as taboo: menstruation is perhaps the single most demonized biological event. Rose George, author of The Big Necessity, takes us from ancient practices of bloodletting to the breakthrough of the “liquid biopsy,” which promises to diagnose cancer and other diseases with a simple blood test. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the world’s first system of mass blood donation during the Blitz, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, known as “Menstrual Man” for his work on sanitary pads for developing countries. She probes the lucrative business of plasma transfusions, in which the US is known as the “OPEC of plasma.” And she looks to the future, as researchers seek to bring synthetic blood to a hospital near you. Spanning science and politics, individual’s stories and global epidemics, Nine Pints reveals our life’s blood in an entirely new light. One of Bill Gates’ Recommended Summer Reading Titles “Stellar . . . An informative, elegant, and provocative exploration of the life-giving substance . . . A wondrously well-written work.” —Booklist (starred review) Both fascinating and informative . . . George packs her book with the kinds of provocative, witty, and rigorously reported facts and stories sure to make readers view the integral fluid coursing through our veins in a whole new way.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “George charges down wholly unexpected avenues of medical history and global injustice, leaving the reader by turns giddy and appalled. And always, always in awe of the writing.” —Mary Roach, author of Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War “A very good book.” —The New York Times
The Blood of Heaven
Author: Kent Wascom
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802193501
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
“The work of a young writer with tremendous ambition, a bildungsroman of religion and revolution set during an obscure chapter of American history.” —The Washington Post A powerful and impressive debut novel from the winner of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Prize for fiction—first in the Woolsack family saga that continues with Secessia and The New Inheritors. The Blood of Heaven is the story of Angel Woolsack, a preacher’s son, who flees the hardscrabble life of his itinerant father, falls in with a charismatic highwayman, then settles with his adopted brothers on the rough frontier of West Florida, where American settlers are carving their place out of lands held by the Spaniards and the French. The novel moves from the bordellos of Natchez, where Angel meets his love Red Kate to the Mississippi River plantations, where the brutal system of slave labor is creating fantastic wealth along with terrible suffering, and finally to the back rooms of New Orleans among schemers, dreamers, and would-be revolutionaries plotting to break away from the young United States and create a new country under the leadership of the renegade founding father Aaron Burr. The Blood of Heaven is a remarkable portrait of a young man seizing his place in a violent new world, a moving love story, and a vivid tale of ambition and political machinations that brilliantly captures the energy and wildness of a young America where anything was possible. It is a startling debut. “Wascom is a craftsman, and each of his lengthy, winding sentences shimmers with the tang of blood and bone and sweat, and the archaic splendor of his language.” —The Boston Globe
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802193501
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
“The work of a young writer with tremendous ambition, a bildungsroman of religion and revolution set during an obscure chapter of American history.” —The Washington Post A powerful and impressive debut novel from the winner of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Prize for fiction—first in the Woolsack family saga that continues with Secessia and The New Inheritors. The Blood of Heaven is the story of Angel Woolsack, a preacher’s son, who flees the hardscrabble life of his itinerant father, falls in with a charismatic highwayman, then settles with his adopted brothers on the rough frontier of West Florida, where American settlers are carving their place out of lands held by the Spaniards and the French. The novel moves from the bordellos of Natchez, where Angel meets his love Red Kate to the Mississippi River plantations, where the brutal system of slave labor is creating fantastic wealth along with terrible suffering, and finally to the back rooms of New Orleans among schemers, dreamers, and would-be revolutionaries plotting to break away from the young United States and create a new country under the leadership of the renegade founding father Aaron Burr. The Blood of Heaven is a remarkable portrait of a young man seizing his place in a violent new world, a moving love story, and a vivid tale of ambition and political machinations that brilliantly captures the energy and wildness of a young America where anything was possible. It is a startling debut. “Wascom is a craftsman, and each of his lengthy, winding sentences shimmers with the tang of blood and bone and sweat, and the archaic splendor of his language.” —The Boston Globe