BOOK and AUTHORS

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe won the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction Wednesday, beating such celebrated nominees as Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan. The $120,000 prize is awarded every two years for a body of fiction. Achebe, 76, is best known for his first novel, "Things Fall Apart' (1958), and "Anthills of the Savannah," published more than 30 years later. He has written more than 20 books, including novels, short stories, essays and collections of poetry.

"Chinua Achebe's early work made him the father of modern African literature as an integral part of world literature," said Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, one of the three judges for the award."In ‘Things Fall Apart' and his other fiction set in Nigeria, Chinua Achebe inaugurated the modern African novel," said another judge, academic Elaine Showalter. "He also illuminated the path for writers around the world seeking new words and forms for new realities and societies. We honor his literary example and achievements." The third judge was novelist Colm Toibin.

Achebe's work centers on African politics, the way Africa and Africans are depicted in the West and the effects of colonization on African societies.

In all, 15 writers from Canada, Britain, the United States, Australia, Ireland, France, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria and the Netherlands were shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction award. Besides Achebe, the contenders included three Canadians — Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and short story writer Alice Munro — and two Americans, Roth and Don DeLillo. Also nominated were three Britons — McEwan, Salman Rushdie and Doris Lessing — Ireland's John Banville, Australia's Peter Carey, Mexico's Carlos Fuentes, Israel's Amos Oz, France's Michel Tournier and Dutch writer Harry Mulisch.

Launched in 2004 as a spin-off from Britain's prestigious Booker Prize, the international trophy is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction in English or whose work has been translated into English. Albanian writer Ismail Kadare won the inaugural prize in 2005.

The original Booker is open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth of former British colonies. While the original Booker is given for a novel, the international prize recognizes a body of work. Its official name is the Man Booker International Prize, after its sponsor, financial services conglomerate Man Group PLC.

Achebe will receive the prize on June 28 at a ceremony in Oxford.

Read the full story HERE

Unperturbed by her apparent failure in the political counselling business, she has now completed her first book, a biographical work titled Bohemian Tales. And while her name appears on the cover as author, Emelia Gypsy Fire says the book was written by "some higher spiritual force," which could be a clue as to why she is publishing it herself after being knocked back by several publishers.

So what is it about? After reading the book's promo blurb Spike is still not quite sure, although we do know it is set in 1996 in Katoomba and is about a character named Isabella Georgio and her son, Raphael. "A true, passionate, inspirational tale of struggle and healing. She experiences mystical insight. Her friends are young gay boys, artists, bank robbers, Aboriginal elders, ferals, prisoners, drag queens, musicians and Japanese girls," Emelia Gypsy Fire said.

So who is Isabella Georgio? "It's me, but I didn't want to use my real name or say 'I' in the book," she told us. "And, no, it's not the Bob Dylan story . . . he features in the book, but it's much broader than that. After the court case when I successfully sued The Truth newspaper for defamation [the paper had alleged she was Dylan's "sex slave"] I got really sick of the Bob Dylan story."

To obtain a copy of the book, please email dancerfire@hotmail.com
The cost including postage and packing is $AU 20.

She is Mother Russia, the largest nation in the world, and her turbulent history has left her filled with restless spirits. Footprints in the Snow is a collection of true and documented stories of the paranormal from Russia and Eastern Europe. Excerpts, in shorter and less detailed form, have been published in numerous Russian and English language publications, primarily through the Illya Resink Library Collection and in various local magazines and newspapers along with such prestigious US and UK publications such as "Fate" and "Phenomenon" Magazines.

Footprints in the Snow: True Stories of Haunted Russia is a reporter's view of documentable paranormal incidents. The stories are told through the eyes of a professional skeptic, one who does not “see ghosts behind every tree.” Statistically, more than 96% of all such stories turn out to be quite natural in origin. There are exceptions.

The stories in this collection have all been thoroughly investigated and documented. These are not the high profile cases you hear about all the time. Most of them are little known outside their immediate area and only by the people immediately involved. You will not find "Ivan the Terrible" or "the lost Princess Anastasia" in these pages. Those cases have been treated frequently enough already.

What you will find are some documented and verifiable accounts of paranormal activity in this country that have, so far, defied any rational or normal explanation. They are interesting and informative reading and entertaining. These are true reports of actual happenings presented in a way that leaves it to the reader to decide the cause of these "footprints in the snow."

EXCERPT

My apartment building is located just across the street from an elementary school and kindergarten that have served our community for more than seventy years. Here in Russia, this isn’t unusual. The school was part of Lenin’s first Five-Year Plan, and was one of the more successful parts.

Late at night, long after the school is closed and completely empty, we can hear children laughing and playing in the playground. It lasts for about five minutes—a relatively long time; but when you look out the window you see nothing. There are no children there.

Everyone in the building is used to this. It happens several times a year, and it’s gone on for decades—at least fifty years— So has what follows. After about five minutes, there is a high-pitched, screeching sound, followed by an explosion. Then the sound of children playing turns to screams, and then stops.

Welcome to Russia, arguably the most haunted land on earth

The stories that you are about to read in “Footprints in the Snow” have all been thoroughly investigated and documented. I trust that you will also find this to be interesting and informative reading. Hopefully, it will also be entertaining.

Attend a quiet family picnic in the forest where a soldier of the Second World War lies in an in an unmarked grave and ill-repose – and cries out to a little child to find him. Stand in shock and awe as a tomb is opened after seventy-six years and the horrible cause of a woman’s nightmares is found. Watch as a little girl plays at the feet of her aging parents – half a century after her death -- and smile at the continuing presence of – in spirit – of “The Countess,” a little grey cat that never knew she was a cat. March stalwartly across the length of Russia – in the heart of winter – with the rag-tag but undefeated soldiers of the “Legion of the Damned,” as they try to shepherd their families to safety across the wild Ural Mountains – every winter for more than 175 years. These accounts are all -- each and every one -- true reports of actual happenings. It is up to the reader to decide the cause of these “footprints in the snow.”

Nineteen years is a long time to spend in any country not one's own. In that time, Dr. Choron has learned a lot about life and living in Russia, especially about the Paranormal. In these pages the reader can literally hear the staccato notes played by the “Drummer Boy of Taratovka” as he warns his loved ones of fire – year after year after year. These pages take you on a visit to the office and the home of one of the most blatantly evil men the world has ever seen, where his presence is still felt half a century and more after his death; and into the bowels of the most notorious prison that the world has ever seen – a place that Alexander Solsinitsyn called the “inner circle of hell.”

Here, in “Footprints in the Snow,” the reader can go along to the barricades during the “August Revolt” of 1991 and stand beside a man who has come there to fight for freedom for the second time in 100 years. He or she can know that love lasts forever as they walk down a quiet village street, smile and wave at the pretty little girl in the garden who will always and forever be a child, or as you hear the story of the little boy who will never – ever – leave his mother, and the teenage girl who is known as the “Angel of the Mourning.” Stand in a tiny cemetery and watch the little girl that a whole town calls “Our Little Hero” play at the feet of her parents … alongside her sixty-five year old grave – seen by all but those who love her most.

Enjoy your stay in paranormal Russia – live in buildings alongside men, women and children who have resided in the same apartment for five generations – and more -- and in some cases for centuries. Enjoy your stay in a hotel in which room service is provided by a pretty young maid – who was murdered ten years before your arrival -- and look out the window and see the young woman who has been standing on the platform waiting for the train – since a cold and windy night in the winter of 1972. Ask the neighbors about their daughter’s “invisible playmate.”