A Choice Outstanding Academic Title “Who will write about the way my people talk, the way my people sing?” Mary Ellen Doyle gathers and makes audible the voices arising from all of Ernest J. Gaines’s fiction to date—the indelible characters who inhabit the author’s lifelong inspirational territory: the bayous, cane fields, and plantation homes of Louisiana’s Pointe Coupee Parish. Beginning with the author’s upbringing and influences on River Lake plantation—amid the pecan trees and live oaks, the big house and the tenant quarters — this penetrating study offers close readings of Gaines’s uncollected short fiction, the early collection Bloodline, and all of his novels, including The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and the acclaimed A Lesson Before Dying. Highlighting Gaines’s skill at translating oral tales into meaningful fictional forms, Doyle advances an original theory of first-person narration (“camcorder”) and traces its use throughout his work. Gaines’s unwavering focus on the utterances of “his people” continually strengthens his artistic development—the voices of the early stories fusing with those of the later novels—until Gaines earns a unique magisterial “voice,” an implied author who is black but speaks to universals. Using critical methods as eclectic as the book’s intended audience, and drawing from on-site research and interviews with Gaines’s relatives and friends, Doyle offers a variety of perspectives on Gaines’s fiction and its world that resonates so powerfully. Those who recognize Gaines as one of the finest southern writers of the last forty years will find here an accessible instrument to hear his voices more clearly than ever.

'Original and illuminating ... what a good book this is' Jonathan Dimbleby 'A love letter to the people of the Old City' Jerusalem Post In Jerusalem, what you see and what is true are two different things. Maps divide the walled Old City into four quarters, yet that division doesn't reflect the reality of mixed and diverse neighbourhoods. Beyond the crush and frenzy of its major religious sites, much of the Old City remains little known to visitors, its people overlooked and their stories untold. Nine Quarters of Jerusalem lets the communities of the Old City speak for themselves. Ranging through ancient past and political present, it evokes the city's depth and cultural diversity. Matthew Teller's highly original 'biography' features the Old City's Palestinian and Jewish communities, but also spotlights its Indian and African populations, its Greek and Armenian and Syriac cultures, its downtrodden Dom Gypsy families and its Sufi mystics. It discusses the sources of Jerusalem's holiness and the ideas - often startlingly secular - that have shaped lives within its walls. Nine Quarters of Jerusalem is an evocation of place through story, led by the voices of Jerusalemites.

A “beautifully told story of love and growth” set in post-WWII South Africa (Booklist). When disfigured soldier George Harding returns from the front, he moves a poor family into the servant’s quarters of his family’s South African estate, saving them from financial ruin—and initiating a series of events that will change all of their fates forever. Among the new tenants at Harding’s Rest is Cressida, a young girl haunted by phantoms of World War II and the Holocaust, and terrified by Harding’s gnarled body. Invited to the main house to help bring Harding’s hopelessly timid nephew out of his shell, Cressida makes an impression on her family’s benefactor. As she blossoms into womanhood, Cressida slowly becomes beguiled by what once repulsed her, in this strange and beautiful decades-spanning novel that “blends Dickensian musings on class with a Brontë-like love story” (San Francisco Chronicle). “Cressida, a young girl who watches those around her patch up their wounds from the war and carry on with the weight of pretense, is as observant and as wickedly truthful as any Jane Austen character.” —Amy Tan

Meet the people of Cairo's Gamaliya quarter. There is Nabqa, son of Adam the waterseller who can only speak truths; the beautiful and talented Tawhida who does not age with time; Ali Zaidan, the gambler, late to love; and Boss Saqr who stashes his money above the bath. A neighbourhood of demons, dancing and sweet halva, the quarter keeps quiet vigil over the secrets of all who live there. This collection by pre-eminent Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz was recently discovered among his old papers. Found with a slip of paper titled 'for publishing 1994', they are published here for the first time. Resplendent with Mahfouz's delicate and poignant observations of everyday happenings, these lively stories take the reader deep into the beating heart of Cairo.

As World War two draws to a close seven Australian brothers of indigenous decent find themselves needing to transition back to civilian life and their families. Most head back to the rural area of their birth and where their parents still live as farmers.

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award A journalist by trade, who now suffers from an immune deficiency developed while researching this book, presents personal accounts of what happened to the people of Belarus after the nuclear reactor accident in 1986, and the fear, anger, and uncertainty that they still live with. The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."

From the moment his first novel was published, Larry Heinemann joined the ranks of the great chroniclers of the Vietnam conflict--Philip Caputo, Tim O’Brien, and Gustav Hasford. In the stripped-down, unsullied patois of an ordinary soldier, draftee Philip Dosier tells the story of his war. Straight from high school, too young to vote or buy himself a drink, he enters a world of mud and heat, blood and body counts, ambushes and firefights. It is here that he embarks on the brutal downward path to wisdom that awaits every soldier. In the tradition of Naked and the Dead and The Thin Red Line, Close Quarters is the harrowing story of how a decent kid from Chicago endures an extraordinary trial-- and returns profoundly altered to a world on the threshold of change.

This collection offers short stories, extracts from novels and poems written by authors from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Hawai'i and New Zealand. Many draw inspiration from indigenous oral traditions, while others use the techniques of oral storytelling and recitation.

Collecting documents culled from the writings of ancient Greek and Roman authors, this book provides a glimpse of what life was like in ancient times and illustrates the relevance of these long-ago civilizations to modern life. Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life sheds light on various aspects of Greek and Roman daily life by examining excerpts from the works of ancient authors who wrote about these topics. Written to help readers truly understand what life within an ancient civilization was like, each entry is preceded by background information and followed by thought-provoking questions. This book covers fascinating topics such as domestic life, employment, housing, food and clothing, sports and games, public safety, education, health care, politics, and religion. Each chapter contains several relevant documents excerpted from the writings of ancient authors accompanied by background information, reading and thought questions, bibliographical data, and suggestions for further reading. An introductory essay to the volume, a guide for evaluating original sources, and bio-notes on the ancient authors are also included. As with other volumes in the Greenwood Voices of an Era series, this book contains much more than just a series of documents: it provides the information and tools that will promote critical thinking and support the research process.