The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

Anthony Julius (Author)

Abraham: The First Jew

1,The story of Abraham, the first Jew, portrayed as two lives lived by one person, paralleling the contradictions in Judaism throughout its history In this new biography of Abraham, Judaism's foundational figure, Anthony Julius offers an account of the origins of a fundamental struggle within Judaism between skepticism and faith, critique and affirmation, thinking for oneself and thinking under the direction of another. Julius describes Abraham's life as two separate lives, and as a version of the collective life of the Jewish people. Abraham's first life is an early adulthood of questioning the polytheism of his home city of Ur Kasdim until its ruler, Nimrod, condemns him to death and he is rescued, he believes, by a miracle. In his second life, Abraham's focus is no longer on critique but rather on conversion and on his leadership over his growing household, until God's command that he sacrifice his son Isaac. This test, the Akedah (or "Binding"), ends with another miracle, as he believes, but as Julius argues, it is also a catastrophe for Abraham. The Akedah represents for him an unsurpassed horizon--and in Jewish life thereafter. This book focuses on Abraham as leader of the ...

Tom Mitchelson (Author)

Don't Ask Me about My Dad: An Inspiring True Story of a Scared Little Boy with a Dark Secret

Growing up with him was like being in my own war zone, living in perpetual fear of when the bombs would fall. I was terrified of becoming him, and in moments I could feel I might. He still lives within me grimly like some battered demon spright. And I'm fearful of his shadow. The rage, and his blood. There are some moments when he arrives and I want to tear up the whole world with my bare hands, and all I really want is love. I want him away now. Please. Just go. While growing up in Essex, Tom Mitchelson and his identical triplet sisters routinely witnessed unspeakable acts of violence and abuse at the hands of their dad. They would watch in horror as he dragged their mum around the house, but they never dared breathe a word. Tom knew his dad was a monster, but it seemed he had nowhere to turn until a kindly teacher sought his company... Don't Ask Me About My Dad is an inspirational story of how one isolated young boy overcame the odds and finally found his voice.

Magdalena J. Zaborowska (Author)

James Baldwin: The Life Album

1,An intimate portrait of James Baldwin, offering a new understanding of his life and works as seen through his close relationships and private life "Baldwin authority Zaborowska's gracefully impassioned biography. . . . A creatively conceived appreciation for a decorated life and its far-flung influences on race, queer culture, and art."--Kirkus Reviews James Baldwin (1924-1987) was a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, an influential author, intellectual, and activist who led a celebrated public life--and whose words and image and persona remain current in our culture. Baldwin's many incarnations--"son of Harlem," "Black icon," "great twentieth-century writer," "race man," "prophet," "witness"--have reemerged in the digital age as Baldwin's work becomes a touchstone for a new generation. It is the private, vulnerable, and messier Baldwin--the man behind the prophet and the online meme--who is the focus of this book. Magdalena J. Zaborowska draws on Baldwin's archives and material legacy--from his unpublished papers to his books to his house in France--to offer a fresh look at the writer's understated and obscured private life. Taking a cue from Baldwin's own love of the ...