My life has been a series of broken promises and shattered hopes. At fifteen, I've been through more than most people could handle—abuse, neglect, and the haunting memory of my father's fentanyl overdose. Every place I've called home has been just another lie, another echo of despair. Now I'm at Bright Future Group Home, and I can't help but be cynical. Safety and belonging? Sure. But then I meet Gabriel Lopez. He's kind, patient, and he sees something in me that I thought was long gone. Falling for him is unexpected, but it's the first time I've felt something real, something worth holding onto. But this place has its own shadows. Derrick Mason, another resident, has dark secrets that threaten to drag me back into the abyss. School is a daily battle, and the group home is a minefield. The art room becomes my sanctuary, where I can escape into my drawings, and the garden offers a brief respite from the chaos. My struggles are more than just about finding a place to belong. I grapple with the abuse I've suffered, the cultural roots I feel detached from, and the fact that I'm gay in a world that hasn't been kind. The echoes of my past are always there, reminding me of every broken promise and every ounce of pain. "Echoes" is my story—a fight against the despair that clings to me, a journey to find trust and love in the midst of chaos. Gabriel is my anchor, but Derrick's secrets and my own fears are powerful forces. Can I overcome the shadows of my past and find a future worth fighting for? Join me on this raw and powerful journey through the echoes of my life, where love, pain, and the search for belonging intertwine. This isn't just about surviving—it's about finding the strength to truly live.

Groups of burial mounds may be among the most tangible and visible remains of Europe's prehistoric past. Yet, not much is known on how "barrow landscapes" came into being . This book deals with that topic, by presenting the results of archaeological research carried out on a group of just two barrows that crown a small hilltop near the Echoput ("echo-well") in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. In 2007, archaeologists of the Ancestral Mounds project of Leiden University carried out an excavation of parts of these mounds and their immediate environment. They discovered that these mounds are rare examples of monumental barrows from the later part of the Iron Age. They were probably built at the same time, and their similarities are so conspicuous that one might speak of "twin barrows". The research team was able to reconstruct the long-term history of this hilltop. We can follow how the hilltop that is now deep in the forests of the natural reserve of the Kroondomein Het Loo, once was an open place in the landscape. With pragmatism not unlike our own, we see how our prehistoric predecessors carefully managed and maintained the open area for a long time, before it was transformed into a funerary site. The excavation yielded many details on how people built the barrows by cutting and arranging heather sods, and how the mounds were used for burial rituals in the Iron Age.

The Day of Atonement was a day of rest, penitence, and purification for Israelites of loyal character. On this day, sins and impurities that had accumulated throughout the year were removed from the tabernacle by the application of sacrificial blood to its altars and compartments and transferred by the high priest's confession onto the goat for Azazel, which carried them to the desert. Israel was thus rendered "clean" before the Lord, ensuring that he would continue to dwell in their midst. As it became ingrained in the veil of Jewish consciousness, the Day of Atonement underwent a process of reflection and reimagination as shown in Second Temple literature, where Azazel plays a significant eschatological role. Arriving in New Testament times, the day's imagery and typology presented irresistible motifs which its authors used to proclaim Jesus Christ's atoning death and heavenly intercession on behalf of believers. By utilizing a coherent intertextual approach, this book explores how John wove the Day of Atonement into the colorful literary tapestry of Revelation.

War Echoes examines how Latina/o cultural production has engaged with U.S. militarism in the post–Viet Nam era. Analyzing literature alongside film, memoir, and activism, Ariana E. Vigil highlights the productive interplay among social, political, and cultural movements while exploring Latina/o responses to U.S. intervention in Central America and the Middle East. These responses evolved over the course of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—from support for anti-imperial war, as seen in Alejandro Murguia's Southern Front, to the disavowal of all war articulated in works such as Demetria Martinez’s Mother Tongue and Camilo Mejia’s Road from Ar Ramadi. With a focus on how issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality intersect and are impacted by war and militarization, War Echoes illustrates how this country’s bellicose foreign policies have played an integral part in shaping U.S. Latina/o culture and identity and given rise to the creation of works that recognize how militarized violence and values, such as patriarchy, hierarchy, and obedience, are both enacted in domestic spheres and propagated abroad.