The plight of the so-called "West Indians" who came by the tens of thousands from the Caribbean islands to the wilder- ness of the Isthmus of Panama at the dawn of the twentieth century and who gave, in most cases, the last ounce of their strengths, and in many cases their lives, to help create the miracle of the Panama Canal, has always been a special and very dear subject to me. The disappearance of La Boca, Ca- nal Zone, as a West Indian town (like many other "silver" towns), and soon p...

This is a story, buried in the archives of the past, about a young, unfledged teenager, John Graham Jr., who dreamt of becoming a digger on the Panama Canal like his father and who romanticized the experience as "the moving of mountains and the braving of swamps and jungles." To him it was going to be the greatest adventure that he looked forward to. When, in the year 1910, his father sent for him to come to Panama to join him, his dream came true, but not in the way that he had expected. ...

This is a book of stories compiled by the writer during his life's journey that illustrate eight basic themes of our humanity: Fear of the Unknown, Triumph over Adversity, Dreams and Illusions, Love, Hope, Despair, Faith, and Redemption that he has grouped into eight sections of the same names. Four additional stories are included in a section titled, Most Unforgettable Characters.

Hailed as "a sort of Catcher in the Rye out West," this classic coming-of-age story set during World War II is "a true delight" ( Washington Post Book World).In the summer of 1944, Frank Arnold, a wealthy shipbuilder in Mobile, Alabama, receives his volunteer commission in the U.S. Navy and moves his wife, Ann, and seventeen-year-old son, Josh, to the family's summer home in the village of Corazon Sagrado, high in the New Mexico mountains. A true d...

Stories capturing "the vibrancy of Harlem life, the passions of ordinary black people, and the indignities of everyday racism" by "a great American writer" ( Kirkus Reviews).This collection of forty-seven stories written between 1919 and 1963—the most comprehensive available—showcases Langston Hughes's literary blossoming and the development of his personal and artistic concerns in the decades that preceded the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Many of the s...

THE MAN FROM THE SOUTHIt was getting on toward six o'clock so I thought I'd buy myself a beer and go out and sit in a deck chair by the swimming pool and have a little evening sun.I went to the bar and got the beer and carried it outside and wandered down the garden toward the pool.It was a fine garden with lawns and beds of azaleas and tall coconut palms, and the wind was blowing s...

In her first novel since Insurrecto, Gina Apostol assembles a vision of Philippine history from the 19th century to present day in the fragmented story of the Delgados, a family surviving across generations of colonization, catastrophe, and war.Rosario, a Filipina novelist in New York City, has just learned of her mother’s death in the Philippines. Instead of rushing home, she puts off her return by embarking on a remote investigation into her family’s his...

"To travel through the nineteen works of poetry and prose in this remarkable anthology is to experience Trinidad and Tobago through a kaleidoscopic lens. The writings are grouped into four historically significant periods ('Leaving Colonialism,' 'Facing Independence,' 'Looking In,' and 'Losing Control'). It's an effective construct; the reader experiences island culture and history as a part of its time, formed by a pastiche of nationality, culture, and social class. Standouts abound."

Meet Alicia Cortez: survivor, healer...murderer?1993, Key West, Florida. When a Ku Klux Klan official is shot in broad daylight, all eyes turn to the person holding the gun: a 96-year-old Cuban woman who will say nothing except to admit her guilt.Mixed-race Alicia Cortez arrives in Key West exiled in disgrace from her family in Havana. At the same time, damaged war hero John Morales returns home on the last US troop ship from Europe. As l...

O. HENRY (1862 –1910), born William Sydney Porter, was an American short story writer. Most of O. Henry's stories take place in New York City and deal with ordinary people: policemen, waitresses, bartenders, salesmen, etc.O. Henry received widespread acclaim because of his trademark tales of gentle, warm-hearted characters and ironic plot twists at the end of the story. These iconic plot transitions were soon referred to as “O. Henry Endings.”The personal f...

When 007 goes to Harlem, it's not just for the jazz. For Harlem is the kingdom of Mr Big, black master of crime, voodoo baron, senior partner in SMERSH's grim company of death.Those he cannot possess, he crushes;those who cross him will meet painful ends.Like his beautiful prisoner, Solitaire.And her lover, James Bond.Both are marked out as victims in a trail of terror, treachery and torture that leads from New York's black underworld to the shark-infeste...

Suite as Sugar is a testimony to the unseen forces, always vigilant, ever ready, imbuing the characters in this collection with both resilience and trauma.From Winnipeg winterscapes to Toronto’s condo culture, from Havana’s haunted streets to Trinidad’s calamitous environs, the stories in Suite as Sugar are permeated with the violence of colonial histories, personal and intimate, reflecting legacies of abandonment and loss. The veil between the li...