The Cuban Affair
Nelson DeMille, 2017
Simon & Schuster
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501101724
Summary
Nelson DeMille’s blistering new novel features an exciting new character—US Army combat veteran Daniel “Mac” MacCormick, now a charter boat captain, who is about to set sail on his most dangerous cruise.
Daniel Graham MacCormick—Mac for short—seems to have a pretty good life.
At age thirty-five he’s living in Key West, owner of a forty-two-foot charter fishing boat, The Maine. Mac served five years in the Army as an infantry officer with two tours in Afghanistan.
He returned with the Silver Star, two Purple Hearts, scars that don’t tan, and a boat with a big bank loan. Truth be told, Mac’s finances are more than a little shaky.
One day, Mac is sitting in the famous Green Parrot Bar in Key West, contemplating his life, and waiting for Carlos, a hotshot Miami lawyer heavily involved with anti-Castro groups. Carlos wants to hire Mac and The Maine for a ten-day fishing tournament to Cuba at the standard rate, but Mac suspects there is more to this and turns it down.
The price then goes up to two million dollars, and Mac agrees to hear the deal, and meet Carlos’s clients—a beautiful Cuban-American woman named Sara Ortega, and a mysterious older Cuban exile, Eduardo Valazquez.
What Mac learns is that there is sixty million American dollars hidden in Cuba by Sara’s grandfather when he fled Castro’s revolution. With the “Cuban Thaw” underway between Havana and Washington, Carlos, Eduardo, and Sara know it’s only a matter of time before someone finds the stash—by accident or on purpose.
And Mac knows if he accepts this job, he’ll walk away rich … or not at all.
Brilliantly written, with his signature humor, fascinating authenticity from his research trip to Cuba, and heart-pounding pace, Nelson DeMille is a true master of the genre. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Aka—Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, Brad Matthews, Michael
Weaver, Ellen Kay
• Birth—August 22, 1943
• Where—New York, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Hofstra University
• Awards—Estabrook Award
• Currently—lives on Long Island, New York
Nelson DeMille has a over a dozen bestselling novels to his name and over 30 million books in print worldwide, but his beginnings were not so illustrious. Writing police detective novels in the mid-1970s, DeMille created the pseudonym Jack Cannon: "I used the pen name because I knew I wanted to write better novels under my own name someday," DeMille told fans in a 2000 chat.
Between 1966 and 1969, Nelson DeMille served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. When he came home, he finished his undergraduate studies (in history and political science), then set out to become a novelist. "I wanted to write the great American war novel at the time," DeMille said in an interview with January magazine. "I never really wrote the book, but it got me into the writing process." A friend in the publishing industry suggested he write a series of police detective novels, which he did under a pen name for several years.
Finally DeMille decided to give up his day job as an insurance fraud investigator and commit himself to writing full time—and under his own name. The result was By the Rivers of Babylon (1978), a thriller about terrorism in the Middle East. It was chosen as a Book of the Month Club main selection and helped launch his career. "It was like being knighted," said DeMille, who now serves as a Book of the Month Club judge. "It was a huge break."
DeMille followed it with a stream of bestsellers, including the post-Vietnam courtroom drama Word of Honor (1985) and the Cold War spy-thriller The Charm School (1988) Critics praised DeMille for his sophisticated plotting, meticulous research and compulsively readable style. For many readers, what made DeMille stand out was his sardonic sense of humor, which would eventually produce the wisecracking ex-NYPD officer John Corey, hero of Plum Island (1997) and The Lion's Game (2000).
In 1990 DeMille published The Gold Coast, a Tom Wolfe-style comic satire that was his attempt to write "a book that would be taken seriously." The attempt succeeded, in terms of the critics' response: "In his way, Mr. DeMille is as keen a social satirist as Edith Wharton," wrote The New York Times book reviewer. But he returned to more familiar thrills-and-chills territory in The General's Daughter, which hit no. 1 on The New York Times' Bestseller list and was made into a movie starring John Travolta. Its hero, army investigator Paul Brenner, returned in Up Country (2002), a book inspired in part by DeMille's journey to his old battlegrounds in Vietnam.
DeMille's position in the literary hierarchy may be ambiguous, but his talent is first-rate; there's no questioning his mastery of his chosen form. As a reviewer for the Denver Post put it, "In the rarefied world of the intelligent thriller, authors just don't get any better than Nelson DeMille."
Extras
From a Barnes & Noble interview:
• DeMille composes his books in longhand, using soft-lead pencils on legal pads. He says he does this because he can't type, but adds, "I like the process of pencil and paper as opposed to a machine. I think the writing is better when it's done in handwriting."
• In addition to his novels, DeMille has written a play for children based on the classic fairy tale "Rumpelstiltskin."
• DeMille says on his web site that he reads mostly dead authors—"so if I like their books, I don't feel tempted or obligated to write to them." He mentions writing to a living author, Tom Wolfe, when The Bonfire of the Vanities came out; but Wolfe never responded. "I wouldn't expect Hemingway or Steinbeck to write back—they're dead. But Tom Wolfe owes me a letter," DeMille writes.
• When ashed what book most influenced his career as a writer, here is what he said:
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read this book in college, as many of my generation did, and I was surprised to discover that it said things about our world and our society that I thought only I had been thinking about, i.e., the ascendancy of mediocrity. It was a relief to discover that there was an existing philosophy that spoke to my half-formed beliefs and observations.
(Bio and interview from Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
The Cuban Affair is a good-time read—a heart-pounding adventure story with twists and turns, people who aren't who they say they are, and plans that don't go as they're supposed to go.… Nelson DeMille is a top thriller writer but maybe not at the top of his game here. Every author has a best book (for me it's DeMille's 1990 The Gold Coast), and while this is a terrific page-turner, it's not his best. But if you do read it, I promise you'll have good time. Mac and his first mate, Jack Colby, a Vietnam vet, make a winning duo—and would make terrific stars of a new adventure series. One can hope. MORE…
P.J. Adler - LitLovers
The Cuban Affair feels authentic and real, and it provides knuckle-white tension mixed in with levity.
Associated Press
The opening of The Cuban Affair is dynamite—crisp, funny and dramatic—and the climactic conclusion is masterful action writing, fast, precise and genuinely gripping.
Long Island Newsday
This book has that incredible wit that Nelson DeMille has, and nobody writes characters like Nelson does.
Tampa Bay Times
Nelson DeMille has outdone himself. I thought that Plum Island was one of my favorite thrillers of all time, but I was wrong—DeMille is always going up a gear and The Cuban Affair is going to be one of the top ten thrillers of the year.
Strand Magazine
DeMille’s known for penning hot thrillers (Plum Island, Night Fall), and this one—his 20th—doesn’t disappoint … DeMille keeps it fast-paced, with fascinating details about contemporary Cuba.
AARP
(Starred review.) [An] action-packed, relentlessly paced thriller…. A line from the novel perfectly describes this page-turner: "Sex, money, and adventure. Does it get any better than that?"
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) [A] timely stay-up-all-night, nail-biting page-turner featuring his iconic tongue-in-cheek, articulate, rhythmic narrative. His affably irreverent protagonist, fantastic believable supporting characters … make this a must-read for his many fans.
Library Journal
This is powerful, mythic stuff.… As the true nature of the charter-boat owner’s job becomes clear … DeMille mounts a long, magnificent sequence with boat chases, helicopter rescues, and tracer fire … in that visceral style the author has mastered.
Booklist
Old bones and old grudges in contemporary Havana.… In spots the narrative seems to slog through discursive observations, but they are mostly informative and worthwhile, and then the plot picks up energy again.… A good day's work from an old pro.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Cuban Affair … then take off on your own:
1. What do you think of Mac? Is he living the good life and enjoying all that Key West has to offer? Or would you say he's a bit of a lost soul? Or perhaps he's taking a well deserved breather? Where does Mac himself think he falls along that spectrum—how does he feel about the direction his life has taken? What is it that convinces Mac to take the job Carlos offers him? Is it the money, the ethics involved, the chance for adventure, or Sara Ortega?
2. What do you think about Mac's relationship with Jack Colby? Why are the two such good friends? Both men were in U.S.-fought wars: how was each affected by his wartime experiences?
3. The purpose of the mission is to return to the rightful owners property deeds and millions of dollars left behind in Cuba. How do you sort out the morality involved in this mission? Mac, who says he's not concerned with moral issues (p. 45), nonetheless, wonders about so-called rightful owners: his understanding is that the Batista government was like (even connected to) the American Mafia … and that "behind every great fortune is a crime." Yet he also acknowledges that "some of this money was probably honestly earned." Certainly Sara's grandfather believes so—and that Castro has no right to any of it. Which point of view is most convincing to you?
4. How much do you know of President Batista and what life was like under his rule? How familiar are you with Fidel Castro's overthrow of Batista? In other words, what do you know about 20th-century Cuban history?
5. How many pairs of Capri pants do you think Sara packed? Why does she always look so good in them … well, in shorts too?
6. What is your reaction to Antonio? Is he who he is because of his own character? Or is he a creation of the "system"?
7. Talk about the so-called thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations. Who would benefit … and who would lose out? Why are Cuban-Americans so opposed to better relations between the two countries?
8. How would you describe the Cuba that Nelson DeMille writes about—its scenic beauty, housing, poverty, bifurcated economy (luxury accommodations for tourists and the elites)? Consider, for example, the shortage of farm laborers because workers prefer less strenuous city jobs to the backbreaking work of farming.
9. What would it be like to live in a politically repressive regime such as Cuba? What do you find most troubling about life under Castro?
10. What do you think the future holds for Cuba and the Cubans—and what do you hope for?
11. SPOILER ALERT: What role does the CIA play in the rescue; in fact, what was their role in the overall mission?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
A Long Way Home
Saroo Brierley, 2013 (2014, int'l.)
Penguin Publishers
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780425276198
Summary
The miraculous and triumphant story of Saroo Brierley, a young man who used Google Earth to rediscover his childhood life and home in an incredible journey from India to Australia and back again
At only five years old, Saroo Brierley got lost on a train in India. Unable to read or write or recall the name of his hometown or even his own last name, he survived alone for weeks on the rough streets of Calcutta before ultimately being transferred to an agency and adopted by a couple in Australia.
Despite his gratitude, Brierley always wondered about his origins. Eventually, with the advent of Google Earth, he had the opportunity to look for the needle in a haystack he once called home, and pore over satellite images for landmarks he might recognize or mathematical equations that might further narrow down the labyrinthine map of India. One day, after years of searching, he miraculously found what he was looking for and set off to find his family.
A Long Way Home is a moving, poignant, and inspirational true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds. It celebrates the importance of never letting go of what drives the human spirit: hope. (From the publisher.)
The 2016 film version, Lion, stars Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, and Rooney Mara. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Dev Patel for Best Supporting Actor.
Author Bio
• Birth—1981
• Where—Ganesh Talai, Madhya Pradesh, India
• Raised—Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
• Education—Australian International Hotel School (Canberra)
• Currently—lives in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Saroo Brierley is an Indian-born Australian businessman and memorist. At age 5, Saroo was separated from his biological mother and eventually adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, he reunited with his biological mother.
His autobiographical account, A Long Way Home, was published in 2013 in Australia and internationally a year later. It generated significant international media attention and was adapted to film in 2016. The film, entitled Lion, stars Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, and Rooney Mara. It received six Oscar nominations, including one for Dev Patel for Best Supporting Actor.
Background
Saroo Brierley was born Sheru Munshi Khan in Ganesh Talai, a suburb within Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh. When he was young, his father left his mother, throwing the family into poverty. His mother worked in construction to support herself and her children but often made too little money to feed them all. Nor could she afford to send them to school.
At age 5, Saroo and his older brothers Guddu and Kallu began begging at the railway station for food and money. Guddu sometimes obtained work sweeping the floors of train carriages. One evening, Guddu said he was going to ride the train from Khandwa to the city of Burhanpur, 70 kilometres (43 mi) to the south. Saroo asked to go along, and Guddu agreed. By the time the train reached Burhanpur, Saroo was so tired he collapsed onto a seat on the platform. Guddu told him to wait, promising to be back shortly.
Guddu did not return, however, and Saroo eventually became impatient. He noticed a train parked in the station and, thinking his brother was on it, boarded an empty carriage. He found there were no doors to the adjoining carriages. Hoping his brother would come for him, he fell asleep.
When he awoke, the train was travelling across unfamiliar country. Many hours passed, and although the train occasionally stopped at small stations, Saroo was unable to open the door to escape. The rail journey finally ended at the huge Howrah railway station in Kolkata (then Calcutta), nearly 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) from his home. When someone opened the door to his carriage, Saroo fled, having no idea where he was.
He survived by scavenging scraps of food in the street and sleeping underneath the station's seats. Finally, he ventured out into the city, and after days of homelessness on Kolkata's streets, a teenager took him to a police station and reported that the boy was probably lost. Eventually, he was moved to the Indian Society for Sponsorship and Adoption (ISSA). The staff there attempted to locate his family, but Saroo did not know enough for them to trace his hometown. He was officially declared a lost child and subsequently adopted by the Brierley family of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
His mother
In the meantime, his mother, Kamla Munshi, searched for her two sons. A few weeks after her sons failed to return home, police informed her that Guddu's body had been found near the railway tracks, a kilometre (0.6 miles) from Burhanpur station. He had been struck by a train. She then confined her energy to looking for Saroo, travelling to different places on trains and visiting a temple every week to pray for his return.
Search for his family
Saroo grew up in Hobart with his Australian parents, who later adopted another Indian boy, Mantosh. Saroo learned English and soon forgot Hindi. He studied business and hospitality at the Australian International Hotel School in Canberra.
As an adult, he spent many hours over many months conducting searches using the satellite images on Google Earth, painstakingly following railway lines radiating out from Howrah railway station. He relied on his vague memories of the main features around Burhanpur railway station although he knew little of the name of the station except that it began with the letter B.
Late one night in 2011, he came upon a small railway station that closely matched his childhood recollection of where he had become trapped in an empty carriage; the name of this station was Burhanpur, very close to a phonetic spelling of the name he remembered from his childhood. He followed the satellite images of the railway line north and found the town of Khandwa. He had no recollection of the name, but the town contained recognizable features, including a fountain near the train tracks where he used to play. He was able to trace a path through the streets to what appeared to be the place where he and his family had lived.
Following up on a lead, Saroo contacted a Facebook group based in Khandwa. The Facebook group reinforced his belief that Khandwa might be his hometown.
In 2012, Saroo travelled to Khandwa in India and asked residents if they knew of any family that had lost a son 25 years ago. He showed photographs of himself as a child in Hobart. Local people soon led him to his mother. There he learned that his brother Guddu had been killed the very day that Saroo had fallen asleep on the train waiting for him.
Sarro was also reunited with his sister Shekila and his surviving brother Kallu, who were now a schoolteacher and factory manager, respectively. With Saroo and Guddu gone, their mother was able to afford to send them to school. The reunion was extensively covered by Indian and international media.
Today
Saroo continues to live in Hobart. He and his Indian family are now able to communicate regularly, taking advantage of a computer at the home of one of Kallu's neighbors. He bought his mother a house so she no longer has to work.
Saroo has returned to India and visited his family over a dozen times. He also traveled first class on the Kolkata Mail, a train service from Mumbai to Kolkata, to re-trace his journey of a quarter century earlier. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/17/2017.)
Book Reviews
Amazing stuff.
New York Post
So incredible that sometimes it reads like a work of fiction.
Winnipeg Free Press (Canada)
A remarkable story.
Sydney Morning Herald Review (Australia)
I literally could not put this book down…[Saroo's] return journey will leave you weeping with joy and the strength of the human spirit.
Manly Daily (Australia)
We urge you to step behind the headlines and have a read of this absorbing account.… With clear recollections and good old-fashioned storytelling, Saroo…recalls the fear of being lost and the anguish of separation.
Weekly Review (Australia)
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available by the publisher; in the meantime, consider our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for A Long Way Home…then take off on your own:
1. What propels Saroo Brierley as an adult to search for his birth home, especially as he writes, "I am not Indian…and I have family bonds [in Australia] that cannot be broken (p. 252)? If that is the case, why the drive to find his Indian roots?
2. What role does memory play in shaping our self-identity? What are the memories Saroo has of his early childhood, and how have those memories, many of them traumatized, shaped Saroo's sense of himself? How did Saroo continue to "work" his mind in order to keep his childhood memories alive for 25 years?
3. Discuss Saroo's ordeal on the streets of Kolkata. Also, what about the railway worker who took him in for a time. Why does Saroo run away from the man's seeming kindness?
4. Talk about the genuine kindness of other people Saroo encounters in Kolkata: the ISSA orphanage and Mrs. Saroj Sood, in particular.
5. Describe Sue and John Brierley as parents and the kind of family they provided for Saroo and his brother Mantosh. What were Sue's experiences in her early years? To what degree did her background as a refugee influence her desire to adopt two Indian children?
6. What are some of the darker aspects of this book surrounding poverty. Consider this passage from the book:
Today there are perhaps a hundred thousand homeless kids in Kolkata, and a good many of them die before they reach adulthood.… No one knows how many Indian children have been trafficked into the sex trade, or slavery, or even for organs, but all these trades are thriving, with too few officials and too many kids..
7. Talk about Kamala as a single mother and her struggles to keep her family fed. Is her experience typical of Indian village women? Also, consider her insistence on remaining in the same home in hopes that her son might someday return to her. What does that suggest about the kind of woman Kamala is and the strength of her optimism and her faith?
8. Discuss Saroo's use of technology to locate his family—Facebook and Google Earth, in particular. Would this story have had a different outcome absent the internet?
9. What was your experience reading A Long Way Home? Did you find it one-dimensional, too focused on Saroo's experiences? Or did you find that the story captured the multiple experiences of Saroo and his two families? Was the story engaging, suspenseful, heart-rending? Was there one part of the story you found more interesting than the other: the story of Saroo as a lost child in Kolkata...or the story of his five-year-long search for his birth family.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Look for Me (Detective D.D. Warren, 9)
Lisa Gardner, 2018
Penguin Publising
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781524742058
Summary
In Lisa Gardner's latest twisty thrill ride, Detective D.D. Warren and Find Her's Flora Dane return in a race against the clock to either save a young girl's life … or bring her to justice.
The home of a family of five is now a crime scene: four of them savagely murdered, one—a sixteen-year-old girl—missing.
Was she lucky to have escaped? Or is her absence evidence of something sinister?
Detective D.D. Warren is on the case—but so is survivor-turned-avenger Flora Dane. Seeking different types of justice, they must make sense of the clues left behind by a young woman who, whether as victim or suspect, is silently pleading, look for me. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• AKA—Alicia Scott
• Birth—ca. 1971-72
• Where—Hillsboro, Oregon, USA
• Education—University of Pennsylvania
• Awards—Best Hardcove (Int'l. Thriller Writers); France's Grand Prix des lectrices
de Elle, prix du policie; Daphne du Maurier Award (Romances Writers of America)
• Currently—lives in New Hampshire
Lisa Gardner is an American author of fiction. She is the author of 30 some novels, including thriller-suspense works such as The Killing Hour, The Next Accident, Catch Me, and most recently Find Her. She also has written romance novels using the pseudonym Alicia Scott. With over 22 million books in print, Lisa is published in 30 countries. Four of her novels have been adapted as TV movies.
Her work as a research analyst for a consulting firm spurred her interest in police procedure, cutting edge forensics and twisted plots—a fascination she parlayed into more than 16 bestselling suspense novels.
Raised in Hillsboro, Oregon, she graduated from the city's Glencoe High School. As of 2007, Gardner lives in New Hampshire. (Author bio adapted from Wikipedia and the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Family, friendships and foster relationships are explored in this emotional, page-turning thriller.
USA Today
Gardner has a talent when it comes to exploring uncomfortable topics and the various psychological aspects that accompany them while evoking truly emotional responses.… Though the material Gardner writes about might sometimes be dark, she knows how to shine a light and generate optimism when all looks lost.
Associated Press
Gardner has tackled a tough subject with some complicated protagonists…Fans will find the result satisfying as ever.
Florida Times Union
In Thriller Award–winner Gardner’s exciting ninth novel featuring Boston Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren…. Gardner shines a heartbreaking light on foster care abuse while steadily ratcheting up the tension to a genuinely surprising and emotional finale.
Publishers Weekly
The twists and turns in this gripping D.D. Warren adventure will keep readers turning the pages.
Library Journal
( Starred review.) Suspenseful and wholly believable, this ninth entry will win new fans for the series, especially among those who favor Karin Slaughter's gritty procedurals.
Booklist
Despite Gardner's considerable research into the foster-care system, her plot is a tired one populated with cardboard characters and twists any savvy reader will see coming a mile away.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
GENERIC QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they flat, one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers embed hidden clues, slipping them in casually, almost in passing. Did you pick them out, or were you...clueless? Once you've finished the book, go back to locate the clues hidden in plain sight. How skillful was the author in burying them?
4. Good crime writers also tease us with red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead us astray. Does the author try to throw you off track? If so, were you tripped up?
5. Talk about the twists & turns—those surprising plot developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray.
a. Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense?
b. Are they plausible or implausible?
c. Do they feel forced and gratuitous—inserted merely to extend the story?
6. Does the author ratchet up the suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? A what point does the suspense start to build? Where does it climax...then perhaps start rising again?
7. A good ending is essential in any mystery or crime thriller: it should ease up on tension, answer questions, and tidy up loose ends. Does the ending accomplish those goals?
a. Is the conclusion probable or believable?
b. Is it organic, growing out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 3)?
c. Or does the ending come out of the blue, feeling forced or tacked-on?
d. Perhaps it's too predictable.
e. Can you envision a different or better ending?
8. Point to passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing, that somehow struck you. What, if anything, made you stop and think? Or maybe even laugh.
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Or does it somehow fall short?
10. Compare this book to other mystery, crime, or suspense thrillers that you've read. Consider other authors or other books in a the series by the same author.
(Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Secret Wife
Gill Paul, 2016
Avon
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780008102142
Summary
A Russian grand duchess and an English journalist. Linked by one of the world’s greatest mysteries … Love. Guilt. Heartbreak.
1914
Russia is on the brink of collapse, and the Romanov family faces a terrifyingly uncertain future. Grand Duchess Tatiana has fallen in love with cavalry officer Dmitri, but events take a catastrophic turn, placing their romance—and their lives—in danger.
2016
Kitty Fisher escapes to her great-grandfather’s remote cabin in America, after a devastating revelation makes her flee London. There, on the shores of Lake Akanabee, she discovers the spectacular jewelled pendant that will lead her to a long-buried family secret.
Haunting, moving and beautifully written, The Secret Wife effortlessly crosses centuries, as past merges with present in an unforgettable story of love, loss and resilience. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Glasgow, Scotland, UK
• Education—Glasgow University
• Currently—lives in London, England
Gill Paul is a Scottish author of history and historical fiction. She was born in Glasgow and studied Medicine at Glasgow University. She later studied English Literature and History (she was, as she admits, "a student for a long time"). After graduating, Paul headed to London, where she worked in publishing, eventually starting her own company to produce books for publishers.
Paul's latest novel, The Secret Wife (2016), uses a dual time-frame: the first, in which a young woman must decide whether to forgive her unfaithful husband, and the second, which re-imagines the survival of Tatiana Romanov, the second daughter of the last tsar of Russia, and her love for a young cavalry officer.
Other novels include No Place for a Lady (2015), about two Victorian sisters who travel out to the Crimean War of 1854–56 and face challenges beyond anything they could have imagined; The Affair (2013), set in Rome in 1961–62 as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fall in love while making Cleopatra; and Women and Children First (2012), about a young steward who works on the Titanic.
Gill also writes historical non-fiction, including A History of Medicine in 50 Objects (2016) and her "Love Stories" series, each volume containing fourteen tales of real-life couples: how they met, why they fell for each other, and what happened in the end. Published around the world, the series includes World War II Love Stories (2014), Royal Love Stories (2012), and Titanic Love Stories (2011). Paul also writes on health, nutrition and relationships. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Meticulously researched and evocatively written, this sweeping story will keep a tight hold on your heartstrings until the final page
Iona Grey, author
A cleverly crafted novel and an enthralling story: the heartbreak genuine, the research brilliant. I love the way the present narrative throws light on the past story so that the transitions are smooth. A triumph.
Dinah Jefferies, author
A marvellous story: gripping, romantic and evocative of a turbulent and fascinating time.
Lulu Taylor, author
This was just magical. At the last line, tears rolled down my cheeks. Highly recommended.
Louise Beech, author
A heart-warming affirmation of the tenacity of human love.
Liz Trenow, author
Gill Paul has crafted a beautiful book. The passages set in Russia in 1914 are so richly described and researched that I felt as if I was living in the pages myself. I adored it.
Amanda Jennings, author
Discussion Questions
These questions have been graciously submitted to LitLovers by Linda from the Page Turners book club. Thank you Linda!
1. This novel begins with a troubled marriage between Kitty and Tom? What was the problem? Why did Kitty flee to Lake Akanabee? Why did she choose this place?
2. What was the importance of the golden oval studded with jewels that Kitty found under the steps of the cabin? How does this object become a focal point of the plot line?
3. Much of this novel is the actual history of the Romanov family of Russia. Describe the family members. What can you conclude (or do you know) about Tsar Nicholas as a ruler of Russia?
Why were the Romanovs so unpopular with so many of the Russian people?
4. Who was Grigori Rasputin? How did he gain such control over the royal family?
5. How did Dmitri Malama meet Tatiana? What does the title of the book, "The Secret Wife," refer to? (You can find photos of Dmitri and Tatiana on the internet.)
6. What interests bonded Dmitri and Tatiana?
7. At what point in the novel did Gill Paul deviate from actual history? What was Dmitri’s plan to rescue Tatiana?
8. What was the fate of the Romanovs and Rasputin? The details of this massacre weren’t totally revealed until 1979. How were the remains authenticated? Where are the remains now?
9. Dmitri flees to Berlin after WWI. Whom did he meet there? Why does he leave Berlin for the United States?
10. Who was Anna Tschaikovsky? How does she fit into this story? Do you remember hearing of surviving Romanovs here in the US?
11. How and where did Dmitri find Tatiana? How did she prove she really was “his secret wife”? What was her new name? How did Tatiana find out Dmitri had also survived the war?
12. Who saved Tatiana from the massacre of her family?
13. What arrangement did Tatiana suggest for their future lives in the US?
14. Why did Dmitri have such a poor relationship with his children? How did that affect Kitty and her life?
15. What role did Hana Markova play in Kitty’s life?
16. How did Tom reach out to Kitty? Do you think he was sincere? What did Tom do that convinced Kitty her marriage might be saved?
17. What would you say is the theme of this novel? What similarities or influences do you see between Dmitri and Kitty?
18. Did you enjoy this novel? Why or why not?
(Please feel free to use these questions, online or off, with attribution to Linda of Page Turners and LitLovers. Thanks.)
I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity
Izzeldin Abuelaish, 2011
Bloomsbury USA
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780802779496
Summary
By turns inspiring and heartbreaking, hopeful and horrifying, I Shall Not Hate is Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish's account of his extraordinary life.
A Harvard-educated Palestinian doctor, he was born and raised in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and "has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians" (New York Times).
On January 16, 2009, Abuelaish lost three of his daughters and his niece when Israeli shells hit his home in the Gaza Strip.
Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, he has called for the people of the region to come together so that his daughters will be "the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis." (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—February 3, 1955
• Where—Jabbalia Camp, Gaza, Palestine
• Education—M.D., Univesity of Cairo; Ob/Gyn, University of London; M.P.H., Harvard University
• Currently—lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Izzeldin Abuelaish, MD, MPH, is a Palestinian physician and infertility expert who was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He received a scholarship to study medicine in Cairo, and then received a diploma from the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of London.
He completed a residency in the same discipline at the Soroka Medical Center in Israel, followed by a subspecialty in fetal medicine in Italy and Belgium. He then undertook a masters in public health at Harvard University.
Before his three daughters were killed in January 2009, Dr. Abuelaish worked as a senior researcher at the Gertner Institute at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv. He now lives with his family in Canada, where he is an associate professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. His Web site and foundation can be found at Daughters for Life. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Abuelaish's no-frills account of a life lived under siege. A man with many Israeli friends, Abuelaish puts real human beings back at the heart of one of history's more intractable conflicts.
Independent (UK)
(Starred review.) Abuelaish knows anger, but in this impassioned, committed attempt to show the reader life on the sliver of land that is Gaza, he demonstrates that "anger is not the same as hate."
Publishers Weekly
This is a serious book, often painful to read. I cannot imagine the strength of character it takes to endure the losses he has without entertaining thoughts of revenge. Hug your kids. —Therese Purcell Nielsen, "Memoir Short Takes", Booksmack!
Library Journal
Inspiring…[and] deeply affecting narrative told in a voice of poignant simplicity, punctuated by injunctions to love that are far from corny, tried as they are by the searing experiences of a righteous man striving to act decently in a place of madness.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
The following questions were graciously submitted to LitLovers by Nuha Miley and the Lutheran Church of the Master Book Club in Coeur d Alene, Idaho. Thank you!
1. Talk about what Muslims do for their dead (p. 78).
2. Why is it so easy to hate what we don't know, and why shouldn't we hate (p. 42)?
3. What does intifada mean?
4. What made Izzeldin Abuelaish decide to become a doctor?
5. Abuelaish says anger is not the same as hate. What is the difference? How do any of us prevent one from leading to the other?
6. What lessons can all of us, individuals and countries alike, learn from Dr. Abuelaish?
7. By any standards, the hospital in Gaza is in a shocking state of disrepair. How was such a vital institution allowed to deteriorate?
(Questions by Nuha Miley. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution to both Nuha and LitLovers. Thanks.)