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| Category: Fiction:Spiritual |
(requires Adobe Reader)
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| About the Book | |
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In 2025 regular flights to space begin from countries around the world. They carry immigrants who will inhabit the colonies being established there. Back on Earth, people carry on with their lives: some become part of the migration, others remain behind. The first seven chapters of Promised Land, each set in a different country and having a different narrator, tell the stories of some from both groups. CHAPTER 1, USA. Jake, a somewhat shady adventurer, and his partner Sydney, operate a helicopter service in Idaho. A good friend, Mack, also a pilot, lends a hand from time to time. In 2020, as Jake and Syd begin making plans to become shuttle pilots in space, they call on Mack one last time. CHAPTER 2, PERU. Maricela Sato, a Peruvian of Japanese ancestry, tells of the special relationship that develops between her family and their Incan housekeeper, Clara. CHAPTER 3, AFRICA. Seventy-year-old Yvette Ndugu recalls the Belgian nun, Sister Marie Claire, who came to her Congolese village in 1968, when Yvette was nine years old, profoundly touching her life and that of her family. CHAPTER 4, BRAZIL. Roberto Perreira reflects on his life growing up on and around a tributary of the Amazon River, and his personal efforts to help restore Brazil's environment closer to the way it had been in the time of his Amerindian ancestors. CHAPTER 5, IRELAND. In 2002 young American newlyweds relocate from New York City to Dublin. After having a daughter of their own, they adopt Liam and Rebecca. At sixteen, Rebecca tracks down her biological father, whom she has never met, and goes to London to visit him, with unexpected results. CHAPTER 6, INDIA. Born in the US to Indian parents, ten-year-old Anishula is taken back to the town of Bhor to live with her father’s parents, after he divorces her mom. There, she forms a strong bond with her paternal grandparents. At seventeen Anishula returns to the US and becomes a doctor, eventually returning to Bhor as head physician of a clinic there. CHAPTER 7, VIETNAM. During the Vietnam War, a boy is befriended by US GI’s stationed at a base in his South Vietnamese village. In 2003 he reunites in Ho Chi Minh City with three of those GI’s. There, he pays tribute to their special friendship, through a surprise that he shares with them and one that he does not. CHAPTER 8, EXODUS. The story lines converge in this final chapter, which describes certain events that occur on October 6, 2040, the day when all migration from Earth to space must end, by decree of the governing body of the colonies there.
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| About the Author | |
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M.A. Laborde is a pen name sometimes used by A. Samuel, a semiretired educator and computer trainer. A perennial student herself, with a strong interest in diverse languages and cultures, she enjoys exploring both fictional and nonfictional worlds through her writing. |