India

India

A SUITABLE BOY by Vikram Seth is the story of four families in India in the early
1950s after British occupation has ended and the India/Pakistan Partition has taken place.
Though not an epic novel in the usual sense of the word, A SUITABLE BOY is certainly epic in
scale, over 1,400 pages in length. To understand the novel, the reader must also understand to a
certain extent the Indian culture of racial castes and arranged marriages. It is, in fact, the idea of
the arranged marriage that is implied in the title. A great deal of effort is put forth on the part of a
family to find a "suitable boy" for their unmarried daughters. As Indian girls gain more
independence like going out shopping in small groups of friends and attending university classes,
there arises a conflict between many girls and their families over the idea of an arranged
marriage. Arguably the central character of the novel, Lata Mehra, questions how a woman could
marry and live with a man she could not love because she knew nothing about him. The novel
begins with the arranged marriage of Lata's sister Savita to Pran Kapoor,a young man who is a
professor in Brahmpur University and from a prominent family. He is, therefore, a "suitable
boy." Lata's widowed mother, who made the arrangements for Savita's marriage, is intent on
marrying off her youngest daughter, Lata. Although the novel is not political in nature, there is
enough of the conflict between Hindu and Muslim to explain certain prejudices, and it is into one
of those prejudices that Lata rushes headlong as she meets and eventually falls in love with Kabir
Durrani, a Muslim and son of a prominent mathematician at the University. To further
complicate the plot, Maan Kapoor, Pran's younger brother, becomes infatuated with the
notorious Muslim courtesan, Saeeda Bai. Lata's situation becomes complicated when someone
sees her out walking with Kabir and reports it to her mother. Mrs. Rupa Mehra is beside herself
thinking Lata has ruined her reputation and no "suitable boy's" family will have her marry their
son. When she learns that Kabir is Muslim, she hastily packs herself and Lata off to Calcutta.
The plot contains a great many political intrigues that are difficult to follow and would be
uninteresting were it not for the fact that various family members are involved in the action.
Begum Abida Khan narrowly manages to retain the family residence after a run in with L. N.
Agarwal over the handling of a near riot. The melee was caused by the intention to erect a Hindu
Temple adjacent to a Mosque which, incidentally, had once been a Hindu Temple. The sticking
point was a phallus of Shiva in the temple directly between the mosque and Mecca, toward
which Muslim's pray. The political maneuvering comes to a head with the passage of the
Zamindari Abolition Bill which will effectively cause large land holders to lose much of their
property.
The plot continues throughout the novel centering mostly on the "suitable boy" theme played out
in sub-plots involving Maan Kapoor and Saeeda Bai, Ishaq and Tasneem, and most especially
Lata and Kabir and "suitable boys" to whom she is introduced in Calcutta. In the end, Lata
resolves to give up Kabir and marry a "suitable boy" she likes but does not love. Aside from
Lata's heartbreaking decision not to marry Kabir, there is little real ugliness in the novel outside
of inter- and intra-family intrigues which Seth somehow manages to make interesting reading.
Biography of Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth is one of those modern Indian poets who have moved poetry into new dimensions.
Born in Calcutta in 1952 to highly placed parents, Seth had his education in Doon School and
later in U.K., Nanjin University, China and Stanford University U.S.A. Though his first language
is Hindi and translates from Hindi and Urdu, he believes that English is his strongest base. He is
said to speak in a mellifluous tenor with a British accent but when he lived in California he put
off using the American spelling for a long time.

To quote his own words, I was inside the language but not inside the orthography. Apart from
the fact that he is a polymath, a man of great learning in various fields he is able to function
with sensitivity and skill in four vastly different cultures Indian, English Chinese and
American. Also he is more interested in the world outside of himself than he is in himself.
Another interesting fact about Seth is that he chose to study economics and not literature, for he
felt as R.K. Narayan felt at the time of choosing a career, that he would lose his interest in
literature if he studied it.

Vikram Seths first publication was Mappings (1982) which records his dual feelings of
nostalgia for India after studying abroad for many years. Many of the poems in this first volume
are of youthful restlessness or concern rebellion and ambivalent feelings towards family,
especially his father, with whom he appears to have strong disagreements (Bruce King). His
second work published when he was a student at Stanford, The Humble Administrators Garden
(1985) won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia.

This was followed by the publication of his The Golden Gate, the great California novel
(1986). Much earlier, he had published a travel book about hitch hiking through Western China,
called From Heaven Lake. He won a Guggenheim Fellowship and returned to India in 1986.

Seths The Golden Gate was hailed as a splendid achievement, as a thoroughly Californian
novel, peopled by unmistakably Californian characters and a splendid tour de force of the
transcendence of the mere tour de force. The tributes were well-deserved indeed. In fact it took
great courage and daring on his part to venture this great attempt at novel writing in verse in spite
of the discouragement he received from many of his friends except Timothy Steele, a poet and
teacher at the University of California.
Egypt

THE RED PYRAMID SUMMARY

On one of their infrequent visitations, siblings Sadie and Carter take a nice trip to
the British Museum in London with their Egyptologist father Julius Kaneduring which he
blows up the Rosetta Stone, releasing five imprisoned ancient Egyptian gods: Isis, Osiris, Horus,
Set, and Nephthys. Set, generally not known to be a nice guy, imprisons Julius in a tomb and
makes cryptic remarks to Carter and Sadie before vanishing.
Sadie and Carter's uncle, Amos, steps in and brings the kids to New York, revealing that they
come from a line of ancient Egyptian magicians and need to be brought up to speed. Amos
disappears while gathering info on Set's nefarious plans, and Set's minions attack the kids and
Amos's baboon sidekick Khufu. The cat goddess Bast comes to their rescue and carts the kids
around until Zia, a teenaged magician from the House of Life, brings Carter and Sadie to the
magicians' headquarters in Egypt.
Turns out the kids are in deep, as they're suspected of being "godlings," or hosts for the escaped
gods Isis and Horus. Though ancient Egyptian magicians and pharaohs used to work with gods,
in the last few thousand years, the magicians decided to imprison and outlaw the gods. Seeing
that they might be condemned to death, Zia lets Carter and Sadie escape. Bast escorts them on a
quest to figure out how to defeat Set, who is constructing a giant red pyramid in Phoenix,
Arizona, in order to focus his power and destroy a good chunk of North America.
Sadie and Carter come to terms with the gods inside them and meet other deities, such as Anubis
(the god of funerals), Nut (the sky goddess), Geb (the earth god) and Thoth (the god of wisdom
and knowledge). They battle various demons while gathering the ingredients for a ritual to defeat
Set. They bicker like siblings do. Bast provides comedic relief but also key information, like the
fact that Ruby Kane died while trying to bring the old gods back into the world.
Things come to a head in Phoenix, where Zia joins Carter and Sadie, despite the fact that
magicians and gods are supposed to be at odds. The kids must simultaneously battle Set, who's
super powerful, and let their father fully merge with Osiris by dying and becoming god of the
underworld. They realize partway through the battle that Set is being controlled by Apophis, the
primal force of chaos, so since he's the real enemy, they don't have to destroy Set. They merely
bind him long enough to get him to knock off that blow-up-North-America nonsense.
The magicians of the House of Life, who had been battling Set, are close to destroying Sadie and
Carter for being godlings. Their leader, Desjardins, is especially stuck on the whole thing, but he
lets Sadie and Carter go with a warning after they consciously choose independence from Isis
and Horus rather than continue to let the gods rule them and use their bodies. So the book ends
with a compromise: Sadie and Carter have refused the limitless power that Isis and Horus could
offer them, deciding instead to learn how to be magicians before getting back with the gods.
Sadie and Carter decide to find others like them, and, with Bast's help, they attempt to learn the
way of the ancient gods once again.
Biography of Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan is an American author best known for writing the Percy Jackson and the
Olympians series, based off of Greek mythology. His books have become hugely popular with
young adult readers, and have been translated into 37 languages and sold over 30 million copies
in the United States.
Riordan was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and graduated from Alamo Heights High
School. He studied music at Texas State University, and then transferred to the University of
Texas at Austin to study English and History. He then received a teaching certification from the
University of Texas in San Antonio, and taught English and Social Studies for eight years in San
Francisco.

Rick is married to Becky Riordan, and they have two sons, Patrick and Haley. The Riordan
family moved from San Antonio to Boston in 2013.

While Riordan's most successful book series is Percy Jackson and the Olympians, he has written
several other series as well, including The Kane Chronicles, The Heroes of Olympus,and The 39
Clues. Before Percy Jackson, he wrote an adult mystery series called Tres Navarre.
Riordan has won numerous awards for his work, including the Shamus Award, Edgar Award,
Mark Twain Award, and multiple Children's Choice Book Awards.
Japan

The Tale of Genji Summary

The Tale of Genji centers on the life and loves of a handsome son, Hikaru Genji, born to an
Emperor during the Heian Period.

In the story, the beloved concubine of the Emperor gives birth to Genji and dies soon after.
Raised within the Royal Family, Genji has his first illicit affair with Fujitsubo, the young wife of
the Emperor. She gives birth to a boy who was raised by the unknowing Emperor as his own son.
Although feeling guilt because of this affair Genji goes on to have numerous other affairs with
other court ladies including Utsusemi, Yugao, Murasaki-no-ue, and Hanachirusato. At one point,
Genji's adultery with a lady of the opposite faction results in his being exiled for a period to
Suma After a short time, he returns to the capital, where he rises further in status and position
being appointed to high official ranking reaching the apogee of his career. However, his newly
wed young bride, Onna-Sannomiya, has an illicit affair that results in a child, Kaoru, reminding
Genji of his own similar past actions. Then Murasaki-no-ue, Genji's real love and wife, in fact, if
not in law, of more than twenty years, passes away. Left in deep despondence Genji decides to
leave the capital to enter a small mountain temple.

The Tale of Genji continues, although without the hero Genji. In his place are Kaoru, his
grandson, and Niou-no-miya, Kaoru's friend. These two youths carry on the Genji tradition with
the princesses in the palace at Uji. The story centers on the young lady, Ukibune, whose heart
and mind is set a flutter by the courtship of these two young men.
 Biography of Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu is said to be the author of The Tale of Genji. Although the same can be said
for all women of Murasaki's time, her real name and the date of birth and death cannot be
confirmed even for her, the leading author of her day. The name of Murasaki Shikibu was that
used for a court lady with "Murasaki" being used as a given name while "Shikibu" refers to her
father's position at the court. Beside writing The Tale of Genji, Murasaki also showed her genius
in her other famous book called The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu.
Murasaki Shikibu was born in a middle-level family of nobility during the middle of the Heian
Period. Her father, Fujiwara Tametoki, was known as a scholar and man of literacy although he
accomplished little of note as an official in the government. Perhaps in compensation for this, he
took pains to see that his daughter was well learned. Murasaki Shikibu was remarkable when yet
a child learning to read books that even educated boys found difficult.
Murasaki's childhood was not a happy one as her mother passing away soon after she was born
followed by her elder sister on whom she depended. Murasaki married rather late into a family of
similar social class. Within a few years, her husband died leaving Murasaki with a daughter and
much grief and pain. It was against this background that Murasaki began writing The Tale of
Genji in which she looks closely at the relationships of men and women and the unfortunate
circumstances in which women find themselves placed in.
Prime Minister Fujiwara no Michinaga appears to have found Murasaki a position working for
the Empress Akiko based on the Murasaki's fame that resulted from the popularity of The Tale of
Genji. Various theories exist as to when the writing of The Tale of Genji was finished but it
seems likely that she continued writing it while serving the Empress. Although it is not certain as
to the date of Murasaki's death, she likely passed away shortly after she finished the famous
novel, perhaps when she was forty or so.
African

Summary of Half a Yellow Sun

Half of a Yellow Sun is the story of the years leading up to and the course of the Nigeria-Biafra
war of the late 1960s. Following a failed coup, Nigeria's Igbo population, centred in the east of
the country, seceded to form a proto-independent state called Biafra. During the war for
secession Britain and the Soviet Union provided considerable military assistance to Nigeria and
in the ensuing conflict, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in fighting, under bombs
and to starvation.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel follows three characters through the chaos: Ugwu, the
houseboy of an Igbo university lecturer, Olanna, the partner of the lecturer and member of one of
the families of the Igbo business elite and Richard, a white man in love with Olanna's twin sister
and more at home in Biafra than he had ever been in England. The book is vast. Through its
characters, it deals with tribal enmities, colonial and post colonial sins, the ineffectiveness of aid,
disease, politics, propaganda, child soldiering, the brutality of war, grief and famine. All these
themes are blended seamlessly into a gripping narrative in a strong and powerful voice. On the
cover of Half of a Yellow Sun, Edmund White is quoted as saying

I look with awe and envy at this young woman from Africa who is recording the history of her
country.

I do too. Despite knowing the history all too well, I was turning pages furiously, I'd developed
such an emotional investment in Ugwu and Olanna and Richard. There is a vast array of
characters, every one of them fleshed-out, every one of them interesting and credible. The
descriptions of the people, their culture and traditions, their beliefs, immersed me and educated
me and for a short time, I felt as though I understood what it was to be each of these three
people. It's strong, forceful and evocative - everything you could want a novel to be. And the
prose is faultless.

If I had a criticism to make of Half of a Yellow Sun it would be about its structure. Adichie has
chosen three narrators and although I prefer to get into the skin of just one person when I'm
reading, I can see that these very different points of view were a vital part of the novel. However,
the book is rigidly structured between them - a chapter each by turns, no exceptions - and I felt
very aware of the device, which distracted my attention. In one of the middle sections, the
timeline is disrupted and we return to an explanation of events from an earlier section. I could
probably have coped with either the rigid treatment of the various narrators or a disrupted
timeline, but the inclusion of both just irritated me and did distract from from my enjoyment of
and immersion in an otherwise fine, fine novel.

About a million people died in Biafra during its few years of secession. Kwashiorkor, the
malnutrition caused by protein deficiency, was rife among children. According to Adichie,
Biafrans nicknamed it the Harold Wilson Disease, a mocking reference to the aid given by
Britain to the Nigerian forces against the secessionists. Just one more thing in our colonial and
post-colonial history of which we should feel ashamed.

Do read Half of a Yellow Sun. Minor irritations within the structure notwithstanding, it is a
powerful, evocative book, written with wisdom and passion. It will teach you something.

Empire of the Sun by J G Ballard also sees war from an individual perspective and Peter
Godwin's Mukiwa looks at the colonial legacy in African conflicts.

Biography of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Novelist and feminist campaigner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in 1977 to a middle-
class Igbo family in Enugu, Nigeria. Her mother became the first female registrar at the
University of Nigeria, while her father was a professor of statistics there. The fifth of six
children, she lived what she describes as a very happy childhood, full of laughter and love, in a
very close-knit family.

Pressured by social and familial expectations, Adichie did what I was supposed to do and
began to study medicine at the University of Nigeria. After a year and a half, she decided to
pursue her ambitions as a writer, dropped out of medical school and took up a communication
scholarship in the US. From day one, she became alert to racial generalisations, having to
address the story of catastrophe perspective her American room-mate had of the entire African
continent.

Adichies three novels all focus on contemporary Nigerian culture, its political turbulence and at
times, how it can intersect with the West. She published Purple Hibiscus in 2003, Half of a
Yellow Sunin 2006 and Americanah in 2013. Each time, she manages to give any amateur a
lesson in the recent history of Nigeria. Not simply the history one could peer into a dusty tome
for, but one showing us the countrys diverse cultures, its personal stories, its idioms, its futures.
Half of a Yellow Sun is set during the Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970) in which the Igbo people
an ethnic group of southern Nigeria sought to establish an independent republic. Adichie
chose three unlikely characters to narrate the story: a young houseboy, a woman professor and an
English writer who identifies as Biafran. The reader is consequently required to assess narratives
of class, gender, race and overall belonging throughout. Criticism of Western colonialism and
its aftershocks are demonstrated through the conflicted white journalist Richard. He laments to
Western journalists that one hundred dead black people equal one dead person and is later
urged to write about the war because [the West] will take what you write more seriously
because you are white. This makes a powerful critique of the stories we listen to and why.
Adichie herself commented that I wanted to make a strongly-felt political point about who
should be writing the stories of Africa.

Although her novels and wider writings are the best window into Adichies incisive and emotive
imagination, she has delivered several impressive talks that get to the heart of their subject. They
broadly encompass race and gender, and our tendency to accept what we are taught without
recognising ingrained prejudice. Her 2009 lecture, The Danger of a Single Story, is a brilliant
discussion of race, but her argument is cleverly applicable across much broader contexts. This is
where she spoke of her room-mate in the US having a preconceived idea of who she, a Nigerian,
would be: In this single story, there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her [the
room-mate] in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a
connection as human equals. In this lecture, her discussion of US perceptions of Mexicans as
the abject immigrant during the early 2000s, could just as easily be transferred to our current
hysteria about Syrian refugees entering Europe.

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue,
but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.
Adichies 2013 lecture We Should All Be Feminists discusses the damaging paradigms of
femininity and masculinity. We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller.
We say to girls, You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but
not too successful, otherwise you would threaten the man.

Adichie argues that Feminism should not be an elite little cult but a party full of different
feminisms. It feels a particularly important message to take to heart we are imperfect, we are
attempting to unlearn what we have unconsciously learned and simultaneously discovering new
ways of seeing. As she notes so beautifully, Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have
been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanise.
Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
 Summary oif Water Margin
The novel Water Margin by Shi Nai'an details the rise and fall of a group of bandits during the
time of the Song Dynasty in China. Among the themes addressed in this novel are the abuse of
power by officials, the unjust punishment of the loyal and the power of chivalry and loyalty.
Much can also be learned from the novel about the customs and habits of the early Chinese
people as well as their thought and belief systems.
The story of Water Margin begins when Marshal Hong Xin is sent to a Taoist monastery to
request a cure for a plague currently being suffered by the people of the Eastern Capital. Hong
causes problems when he commands the monks of the monastery to free the 108 demons being
held captive in the Suppression of Demons Hall. It is written in the book that these demons
would cause trouble if released. The conclusion of the first chapter, however, indicates that 108
stars, corresponding to the number of demons released, would also appear on the earth.
These 108 stars, 36 stars of heavenly spirits and 72 stars of earthly spirits, become the bandits of
Liangshan Marsh. These men become bandits not because they are rebels, but because they have
in some way been framed by corrupt officials and either forced to do something illegal because
of the fake crime, or just accused of something they didn't do. Eventually, there are 108 of these
bandit chieftains, along with numerous other warriors, who gather in the marshy stronghold at lm
and wait for amnesty to be granted to them so that they can once again serve their country
without the mark of being a criminal.
Even when amnesty does come, however, the bandits are still not completely free to serve their
country. They are first sent to northern China where they defeat the invading Liao forces. Next,
they are sent to southern China where after many battle casualties, they manage to overcome
invading rebel forces led by Fang La. At the point that the chieftains are set to receive honors
from the Chinese emperor, there are only 27 of the men remaining. Most of these refuse the
leadership positions offered them in hopes of a quieter life. The two main leaders of the group of
bandit chieftains, Song Jiang and Ju Junyi accept leadership roles, but are murdered by the
corrupt officials who still regard these former bandits as enemies. Since the emperor never
realizes it is his own officials who killed Song and Ju, these officials are never punished. After
their deaths, however, Song and Ju are widely honored and worshipped.

China

Biogaphy of Shi Nai'an

(Chinese: ; pinyin: Sh Ni'n, ca. 12961372) was a Chinese writer from Suzhou. Water
Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, is attributed to him.
Little biographical information is known about him. Traditionally it was believed that he was a
teacher of Luo Guanzhong, the editor or author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, another of
the Four Great Classical Novels. Some modern scholars doubt that Shi existed or suggest that
"Shi Nai'an" was merely a pseudonym for Luo himself.
Saudi Arabia

The Prophet presents the farewell observations on and recommendations about life and death of
Almustafa, the chosen and beloved Prophet, as he ends a twelve-year sojourn in Orphalese.
Almustafa, the chosen and beloved Prophet around whom the story revolves, has spent twelve
years of his youth in Orphalese, serving as the people's harp, flame, seeker of silence and
guardian of the night. Much of his time has been spent in the overlooking hills, watching and
listening to their lives. The people have generously met Almustafa's physical needs, but he
realizes that some have criticized his aloofness. Now the ship he has been watching for to take
him home arrives, and Almustafa comes down from the hills to the temple, bittersweet about
leaving. The people gather to see him off, hungry to imbibe whatever wisdom he can deliver, for
posterity's sake.
In the temple and on the prompting of the seer Almitra, who believes in him, a tongue-tied and
emotional Almustafa agrees to respond to questions about what separates birth and death.
Almitra opens the question-and-answer session, and the responses inspire others to seek
guidance about things close to their hearts. Almustafa's responses are all delivered to the whole
citizenry of Orphalese, but each is also tailored to the individual questioner, the sincere and the
cynical.
There are twenty-six questions regarding various aspects of life. Addressing each question
individually, Almustafa exhibits a general tendency to show, through allusions to nature and
everyday activities, the interrelatedness of life. He rejects many of the formalities and restrictions
characterizing such human institutions as law and religion. He dismisses common views about
marriage dissolving the spouses' individuality, molding children to the parents' preconceived
ideas about their futures and prayer being about intercession in time of need, want or sorrow.
Nudity, a significant taboo among all the peoples of the Middle East, is used several times as a
symbol for natural purity and to question formalized views on morality. Generosity can result in
good or evil, depending on the motivations of the giver and the receiver. Many aspects of life are
seen as two sides of a single coin. Almustafa urges the people to see even in life's negative
aspects some spark of good, and he urges the people, young, old and middle-aged, rich and poor,
male and female, to appreciate the unity of life under God and behave accordingly.
As evening falls, Almitra signals that the interchange has ended by blessing the day, the city and
Almustafa's sage words. He objects that he has drawn from them more than he has provided. The
crowd follows Almustafa tearfully to the docks, where he delivers a moving and lengthy farewell
oration, thanking and encouraging the people he has loved and tried to serve, justifying his
methods and urging them to seek excellence in all things and wait patiently for the hidden things
in life to be fully revealed. Almustafa remains encouraging, challenging, hopeful and - above all
- enigmatic to the end, promising, "A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another
woman shall bear me," words Almitra takes to heart as she alone remains to watch the empty sea.
 Biography of Khalil Gibran
Khalil Gibran was born Gibran Khalil Gibran on January 6, 1883, in Bsharri, Lebanon. He
immigrated with his mother and siblings to Boston in 1895 - his father remained in Lebanon to
address financial matters. Gibran would return to Lebanon three years later to continue his
education but returned to America after illness took the life of one of his sisters. He met Mary
Haskell who encouraged his artistic development. During his life, Gibran was a prolific artist
who created hundreds of paintings and drawings.

In 1920, he was a co-founder, along with other poets of Arab and Lebanese backgrounds, of The
Pen-bond Society, a literary society, also known as Al Rabitat al Qualamiya.

Gibran's works, written in both Arabic and English, are full of lyrical outpourings and express
his deeply religious and mystical nature. The Prophet (1923), a book of poetic essays, achieved
cult status among American youth for several generations.

In 1928, he published Jesus, the Son of Man. Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931.
Exodus explores themes of faith, duty, sacrifice, and freedom through the tale of the struggle to
create the state of Israel in Palestine. It begins in Cyprus in 1946 with Mark Parker, an American
journalist, meeting his childhood friend, Kitty Fremont, a nurse who looks after orphans on the
island. Although Mark says he is there on holiday, the British Army is concerned that he will
document them confining Jews to refugee camps so that they cannot travel to Palestine.
Elsewhere, David Ben Ami and Ari Ben Canaan, members of the Jewish underground, discuss a
plan to illegally move 300 Jewish children to Palestine in a ship called the Exodus. When Ari
meets Mark to ask for his support, he also meets Kitty. They share a moment of mutual
attraction, and Ari asks her to help by working in the camp. She initially refuses but is swayed
after being exposed to the suffering of the refugee children, especially a teenage girl named
Karen whom she takes on as a ward and assistant.
The 300 children board the Exodus and the ship sets sail. Following Aris plan, Mark sends off
his newspaper report on the incident and alerts the British Army, who block the ship. This allows
Ari to inform them that the ship will explode if they attempt to board it and that the children are
on hunger strike and threatening suicide. Publicized by Mark, this turns public opinion in favor
of the escaping Jews, and the British are forced to let the Exodus sail on. Kitty struggles to
understand how Ari could so coldly risk the lives of 300 children. Mark explains that
understanding Ari requires understanding his family history. The story then moves to the
nineteenth century to the tale of Aris father, Jossi, and uncle, Yakov,
Two young shoemakers with a passion for religious scholarship, Jossi and Yakov live in the Pale
of Settlement, the only region of Russia where Jews are consistently allowed permanent
residency. When their father is murdered in a pogrom, Yakov kills the murderer and the brothers
are forced to flee. After walking for three years, they finally arrive in Palestine but find the
country disappointingly poor and neglected by native Arabs and by Jews living off overseas
support. Nevertheless, they work hard to make the region prosper. They take the Hebrew names
Barak and Akiva, find wives, and have children, including Ari. They also fight in World War I
alongside British forces and later serve in the Haganah, an underground militia that defends
Jewish settlers against Palestinian Arabs. When he grows older, Ari also joins the Haganah,
along with his fianc, Dafna, until she is killed by Arabs. Ari continues to serve and works to
undermine the British, while his father becomes a negotiator for Israel and stops speaking to his
brother when Akiva joins the Jewish terrorist group the Maccabees.
Back in 1946, the Exodus reaches Palestine. After he shows her the country, Kitty develops
stronger attractions to both Ari and Palestine, although she still wishes to take Karen to live in
America. They find Karens father but discover that he went insane when the Nazis tortured him
and killed his wife and sons, so he can no longer recognize his daughter. As back-and-forth
terrorist actions between anti-Jewish British and the Maccabees escalate, Kitty convinces Karen
to leave for America. However, before they can depart, Aris uncle Akiva and Karens friend
Dov are arrested as members of the Maccabee and Ari is injured during the rescue mission.
Instead of going to America, Kitty remains to look after Ari and Karen stays with her.
As the British withdraw, tensions between Jews and Arabs escalate into full warfare. Ari falls out
with his close Arab friend Taha after he refuses to drive extremists out of Abu Yesha, the Arab
village Ari and his father helped develop. Ari helps lead the Jews to victory at Safed, and spreads
a rumor that they have an atomic bomb, which causes terrified Arabs to withdraw. The Jews also
fight off attacks from neighboring Arab countries. When the Arab inhabitants refuse to leave, Ari
is forced to order the destruction of Abu Yesha, causing the deaths of many friends he has known
all his life, including Taha. After the United Nations calls a ceasefire, Barak gives them a report
on the thousands of Arab refugees the war has created, presenting Israel as a force for progress
and justice.

The final section of the book explores the aftermath, examining the individuals stories against
the backdrop of rapidly expanding immigration into the region. Barak gets cancer but, before he
dies, he tells Ari to finally tell Kitty that he needs her. After Baraks death, his wife and children
gather for a Passover feast along with Kitty, Karens friend Dov, and Sutherland, a man who had
once been the British Army general in charge of the forces in Palestine but has since moved to
the region, befriended the Jews, and provided military advice to the Haganah. Karen is also
invited but, to their collective horror, the group receives a telephone call reporting that Karen has
been killed by Arab fighters. Finally, Ari is overwhelmed with sorrow at all the death he has
witnessed and, weeping, tells Kitty he needs her. Sutherland reveals that he has converted to
Judaism and presides over the feast as Ari and Kitty return to the meal and Dov reads the story of
Exodus, celebrating the Jewish peoples escape from slavery.

Exodus is a vastly successful international bestseller that spent nineteen months as the number
one book on the New York Times bestseller list. It is widely credited as helping foster empathy
for the plight of Jewish refugees and garnering support for the State of Israel. However, it is also
highly controversial and critics have accused it of containing propaganda, historical inaccuracies,
and racist portrayals of Arabs.

Uris, Leon (3 Aug. 1924-21 June 2003), novelist, was born Leon Marcus Uris in Baltimore,
Maryland, the second child and only son of William Wolf Uris and Anna Blumberg Uris. Both
his parents were Jews of Russian-Polish origin; his father spent a year in Palestine before
immigrating to America. An activist pulled to the Labor Zionist movement, William Uris always
maintained strong views on unions and workers' rights, and his son later embodied this sense of
social justice in his writing. Leon Uris had a disruptive youth caused by his parents' divorce
when he was an infant. He shuttled between Baltimore and Norfolk, Virginia, attending public
schools, before enlisting in the marines after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during his
senior year of high school. His wartime experiences as a radio operator in the Pacific, where he
participated in the battles at Guadalcanal and Tarawa, were life changing. After his discharge
Uris lived in San Francisco, where he worked as a district circulation manager for a local
newspaper and wrote articles in his spare time. He married the former Marine Corps sergeant
Betty Beck in 1945; the couple would have three children.

During this time Uris felt compelled to record his war experiences and began to write nightly at
home after a full day's work at the paper. The manuscript grew as his determination matched his
dedication, and Betty supported him. But the almost 2,200-page manuscript met with rejection
after rejection until a West Coast editor from Doubleday saw the work and insisted it be cut,
revised, and restructured. Uris completed this process, and although Doubleday did not take the
newly revised manuscript (the publishing house had recently released The Caine Mutiny), G. P.
Putnam's Sons did, accepting Battle Cry in September 1952. The book was an almost immediate
success upon its release the following year, rising to number two on several national bestseller
lists and going through seven printings within six weeks of its initial publication. The Marine
Corps and the nation loved it.

Uris moved to Hollywood in August 1953 when the book was optioned by Warner Bros. He
wrote the script for the film, which successfully opened in 1955. For the next several years Uris
worked on a series of films, including Rebel without a Cause starring James Dean, and
wrote Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1955-1956 for the producer Hal Wallis. His second
novel, The Angry Hills, appeared in 1955. It was based on the manuscript of an uncle's
autobiography that recounted his service in the Palestine Brigade of the British army fighting the
Nazis in Greece. But it was Uris's third novel, which had begun as an idea for a movie about the
establishment of the state of Israel, that became his breakaway bestseller.

Exodus (1958) had unprecedented sales, with more than 3.5 million copies sold in paperback
alone. But its success had more to do with its treatment of heroic Jewish history, pairing the
horror of the Holocaust with the triumph of Israel, than the writing. Asked about his response to
the novel, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, said that the writing wasn't much but it
was the best piece of propaganda ever written about the ten-year-old country. The director Otto
Preminger's 1960 film of the novel, starring Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint, meant
skyrocketing sales of the book.

After Exodus, Uris continued to turn history into fiction. Mila 18 (1961), published while the
Nazi lieutenant colonel Adolf Eichmann was being tried in Jerusalem in June 1961, focused on
the heroes of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The Berlin airlift was the subject
of Armageddon (1964), and the Cuban missile crisis the center of Topaz (1967). A libel trial
related to the Holocaust became the core of one of Uris's most popular novels, QB VII, which
was also made into one of the first TV miniseries (1974). Uris capped this period of sustained
success with his international hit Trinity, which detailed the struggle of the early fight for Irish
independence. Its appearance in 1976 renewed Uris's worldwide popularity.

Uris's talent for writing action-packed yet thoroughly researched novels meshed perfectly with
the public's desire to revisit and understand the tumultuous events of recent history. This made
him far more popular (and wealthier) than more literary authors, while paving the way for later
writers such as Irving Wallace and Tom Clancy. Critical reaction to his work, however, was
hostile, partly because he shifted facts to suit his story, constantly striving for effect rather than
accuracy. His style also never rose above the romance, although he was effective at dramatic
scenes. But despite his efforts to be accepted as a literary author, he never altered his status as a
popular writer in the mold of Wallace, Arthur Halley, or Jacqueline Susann. Uris complained in
1984 that "it took all my life to become an overnight success" (Nadel, p. 303).

Uris's later work shifted again to the Middle East. He examined the Arab view of Israel in The
Haj (1984), followed by a semiautobiographical novel set in Israel, Mitla Pass (1988). He then
published a sequel to Trinity titled Redemption (1995). His last two novels took a new setting:
the United States. A God in Ruins (1999) was about an Irish candidate for president who
discovers he is Jewish, and Uris's last novel, O'Hara's Choice (2003), was a historical account of
the formation of the Marine Corps.

An affable public figure, happy to be in the spotlight, Uris was in his private life a difficult,
demanding man, temperamental and often egotistical. In 1963 he relocated permanently to
Aspen, Colorado, where he had been skiing for years. He loved living a strenuous outdoor life,
and he became one of Aspen's celebrities. By May 1966 he and his family had moved into a
large home he had built on Red Mountain, facing Aspen Mountain. But his marriage to Betty
Beck ended two years later. He married twice more, to Marjorie Edwards (1969-1970), a part-
time model Uris met in Aspen who committed suicide not long after their marriage, and to Jill
Peabody (1970-1989), a photographer also from Aspen. His union with Jill produced two
children. But after the failure of his third marriage, he moved to the East Coast and died virtually
alone on Shelter Island, New York, in 2003.

As the bestselling author of Exodus, Mila 18, QB VII, and Trinity, Leon Uris blazed a path to
celebrity with books that readers could not put down. Uris's thirteen novels sold millions of
copies and spent months on the bestseller lists; they have appeared in fifty languages and have
been adapted into equally popular movies and TV miniseries. Few other mid-twentieth-century
writers matched Uris's fame. His style mixed the commonplace with the improbable; his heroes
were superheroes remade from history. He rewrote history for the common reader. His success
fueled the rise of mass-market paperbacks, movie tie-ins, and author tours. Beloved by the
public, Uris was, nevertheless, dismissed by the critics. But he mapped the literary landscape of
mid-twentieth-century America, making Jewish writing mainstream and paving the way for Saul
Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Philip Roth. And his novels confirmed that Uris's life constantly
provided his best material; he did the things he wrote about. His idea of heroism was etched on
his gravestone in Quantico National Cemetery, Virginia; the self-authored epitaph reads
"American Marine/Jewish Writer."
My Uncle Napoleon

The story takes place at the time of Iran's occupation by the Allied Forces during World
War II. Most of the plot occurs in the narrator's home, a huge early 20th-century-style Iranian
mansion in which three wealthy families live under the tyranny of a paranoid patriarch Uncle.
The Unclewho in reality is a retired low-level officer from the Persian Cossack Brigade under
Colonel Vladimir Liakhov's commandclaims, and in latter stages of the story actually believes
that he and his butler Mash Qasem were involved in wars against the British Empire and
their lackeys such as Khodadad Khan, as well as battles supporting the Iranian Constitutional
Revolution; and that with the occupation of Iran by the Allied Forces, the English are now on
course to take revenge on him. The story's narrator (nameless in the novel but called Saeed in the
TV series) is a high school student in love with his cousin Layli who is Dear Uncle's daughter.
The story revolves around the narrator's struggles to stall Layli's pre-arranged marriage to her
cousin Puri, while the narrator's father and Dear Uncle plot various mischiefs against each other
to settle past family feuds. A multitude of supporting characters, including police investigators,
government officials, housewives, a medical doctor, a butcher, a sycophantic preacher, servants,
a shoeshine man, and an Indian or two provide various entertaining sequences throughout the
development of the story.

Biography of Iraj Pezeshkzad

Iraj Pezeshkzad (Persian: , Iraj Pezekzd, born 1928 in Tehran) is an Iranian writer
and author of the famous Persian novel D'i Jn Napoleon (Dear Uncle Napoleon, translated
as My Uncle Napoleon) published in the early 1970s.
Iraj Pezeshkzad was born in Tehran, Iran in 1928 in a family of Behbahani descent. He was
educated in Iran and France, where he received his degree in Law. He served as a judge in the
Iranian Judiciary for five years prior to joining the Iranian Foreign Service. He served as a
diplomat until the Iranian revolution in 1979, and left the Foreign Service to reside in France
after the revolution, where he joined Shapour Bakhtiar and his party the National Movement of
Iranian Resistance against the Islamic regime established in Iran.[1] He wrote many political
books for the party (example: "Moroori bar vagheye 15 khordad 42, az entesharat e nehzat e
moghavemat e melli e Iran, Iraj Pezeshkzad").
He began writing in the early 1950s by translating the works of Voltaire and Molire into Persian
and by writing short stories for magazines. His novels include Haji Mam-ja'far in
Paris, Mashalah Khan in the Court of Haroun al-Rashid, Asemun Rismun, Honar-e Mard beh ze
Dolat-e oost, and Dai Jan Napoleon. He has also written several plays and various articles on
the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911, the French Revolution, and the Russian
Revolution.
His most recent novel is Khanevade-ye Nik-Akhtar (The Nik-Akhtar Family). He has recently
published his autobiography titled Golgashtha-ye Zendegi (The Pleasure-grounds of Life).