Norman writes of his 1977 project in Churchill, Manitoba, translating Inuit folktales into English, where he met a dying Anglo/Japanese linguist who was translating the same stories into Japanese. A brief, bittersweet relationship developed between them. Zailckas relates her history of out-of-control party drinking in her teens, what it cost her, and how she pulled herself together. Timm's book, translated from the German, recalls his family's reverent memories of his older brother, who died on the Eastern Front in World War II, serving with the dreaded Totenkopf (Death's Head) division of the Nazi SS, as well as Timm's own efforts in adulthood to learn the truth.
Finally, two uncategorized books: Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages, in March, by Yale religious historian Jaroslav Pelikan, and Legends of Winter Hill: Cops, Con Men, and Joe McCain, the Last Real Detective, also in March, by Salem-based novelist Jay Atkinson.
In the aftermath of all the tussling over religion and morals in the 2004 election campaign, Pelikan explores the known origins of the Bible and how it evolved through various versions and translations to be the book it is today. Atkinson, author of novels Caveman Politics and Ice Time, spent a year as a fledgling private detective in Boston, working with Joe McCain Jr, son of legendary Boston police detective Joe McCain Sr. Besides describing his own year as a PI, Atkinson chronicles the late senior McCain's battles with such Boston mob figures as Howard Winter and James "Whitey" Bulger. Atkinson didn't make a permanent career change -- he teaches English at Salem State College.
RSS