John Grisham Is Back With Sycamore Row, Related To His First Novel A Time to Kill

John Grisham takes you back to where it all began . . .

John Grisham’s A Time to Kill is one of the most popular novels of our time. Now we return to that famous courthouse in Clanton as Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial—a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history.

Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County’s most notorious citizens, just three years earlier.

The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?

In Sycamore Row, John Grisham returns to the setting and the compelling characters that first established him as America’s favorite storyteller. Here, in his most assured and thrilling novel yet, is a powerful testament to the fact that Grisham remains the master of the legal thriller, nearly twenty-five years after the publication of A Time to Kill.

Book Review: When the Sun goes Down, introducing international short stories

Title: When the Sun Goes Down

Author: Emilia Ilieva and Waveney Olembo (Editors)

Publisher: Sasa Sema, 2011

Genre: Fiction (Anthology)

Pages: 199

Reviewer: Manuel Odeny

This title When the Sun Goes Down and other stories from Africa and Beyond is an anthology of sixteen short stories by Emilia Ilieva and Waveney Olembo, both dons in Egerton and Kenyatta university respectively.

Since literature is taught as a mirror which reflects the society this collection as a high school set book in English subject reflects not only to the Kenyan society but also at the international scene with increased titles from foreign writers.

Firstly with 16 stories with international writers, the book has surpass last year’s set book Half a Day and other stories which had 12 from Eastern and North Africa, this new set book has writers from Colombia, India, USA and Japan for the first time in Kenyan set books.

With the high rate of globalization brought by the speed of internet connectivity and media problem in far corner of the world like economic recession, terrorism attack and global warming affects us making this new set up a welcome.

Even though descriptions of the settings and characters may be alien to Kenyan students and readers, their themes are highly linked to us. The international story Tuesday Siesta by Colombian Gabriel Marquez and Sandra Street by Trinidadian Michael Anthony tackle issue of global warming and environmental degradation in an easy writing prose.

Equally, the issue of poverty is brought fore by USA writer Tillie Olsen’s I stand Here Ironing which contrasts the image of the rich western image.

On the other hand, the collection by the two writers Ilieva and Olrmbo has also managed to pass across readers the themes of HIV/AIDS, gender relations, corruption, war and human relations and peculiarities.

The main story When the Sun Goes Down written by Kenyan Goro wa Kamau and gave the book its title, talks succinctly on how society treats and stigmatise HICV/AIDS victims by following the lives of positive couples struggling for acceptance from their neighbors.

The story too like Kenyan Grace Ogot’s Bamboo Hut and Moroccan Leila Abouzeid Two Stories of a House also tackle the issue of gender relation not only in the family but also among members of the society.

Ugandan Moses Isegawa’s The War of the Ears which tackles the use of child soldiers in an African setting resonates well with the readers with the sentencing of DRC warlord Thomas Lubanga by ICC last week. Isegawa who was a refugee in Gulu Town of Northern Uganda writes from experience to invoke the image of a society living in terror of warped children militias. Interestingly, Isegawa is the author of Snakepit which had favorite reviews in Kenyan media few years back.

Other stories like Arrested Development by Zimbabwean Sindisile Tshuma talks of corruption and poort road infrastructure akin the chaotic matatus in Kenya while Sefi Atta from Nigeria talks about the issue of emigrants from West Africa going to Spain through North Africa by following the hazardous journey of a would be emigrant in Twilight Trek.

As an anthology the editors of When the Sun Goes Down have managed to open up high school students to literature of the world by increasing their appreciation with foreign writers. Equally, by mixing seasoned writers like Kenyan Grace Ogot and Nigerian Cyprian Ekwensi with new hands in literature like Sindisile Tshuma, Sefi Atta and Moses Isegawa, readers will appreciate the value of a story regardless of the timeline used.

With the government approval of the short story title with foreign writers for the first time shows that the high school students who are highly connected with Facebook, twitter and contemporary media will have the urge to not only read and appreciate African literature but open up to the world.

Press Release: Raila's Office Response to Miguna Miguna:

KNOWLEDGE OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMES MUST BE REPORTED TO THE AUTHORITIES

Kenyans have been treated for quite some time to all sorts of demonization and unfounded allegations against the Prime Minister, as part of a desperate campaign by his political opponents to undercut his undisputed popularity and prevent his coming to power.

The opponents fear that his commitment to reform would seriously challenge impunity as well as their long hold on power.

These anti-reformers have quite brazenly announced their commitment to the status quo by declaring their common goal is "Anyone but Raila." As part of this campaign, Mr. Miguna Miguna's new book recycles past unsubstantiated allegations all these corruption calumnies against the Prime Minister, without offering a shred of evidence that could shed any new light.

His allegations do not deserve a response, and should be treated with contempt. If there was any evidence to back up the campaign against Mr. Odinga, his opponents- many of them powerful figures, unlike Mr. Miguna - would have long ago produced such proof to scuttle his presidential campaign.

But Mr. Miguna went one step beyond regurgitating these falsehoods in his book, and announced that he had evidence that implicates the Prime Minister in post-election violence, whose suspected architects are being prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

Mr. Miguna uses possession of this evidence to threaten and blackmail those who might seek to challenge him, telling them they should "kiss his feet" if they do not want him to reveal all.

Mr. Miguna's withholding such vital information from the authorities on a subject of such grave concern for Kenyans is a disservice to the nation and a further boon to entrenching impunity.

No less important, withholding evidence of a major felony, leave alone of mass murder which rose to the level of international crimes, is a violation of the laws of Kenya. Such silence is considered as abetting the original crime.

Mr. Miguna, while claiming to be motivated only by the highest moral and ethical principles, is in fact obstructing justice in a case of immense national importance.

We know from Mr. Miguna's own assertions that he took no action to expose or report to the authorities the corrupt criminality he claims he saw in the Prime Minister's Office. Nor did he try to preserve his integrity by resigning, choosing to become the "whistleblower" AFTER he was suspended.

Kenyans must demand that Mr. Miguna back up his latest assertion that he has evidence concerning mass violence by disclosing what he knows.

Dennis Onyango,
Spokesman to the Prime Minster
July 16, 2012.

Synopsis: Miguna Miguna to release book on Raila on mid next month

Miguna Miguna the former adviser on coalition government to Kenyan PM Raila Odinga is set to release his book Peeling Back the Mask in the next 40 days. The 584 pages book to be published on 15/07/2012 by Gilgamesh Publishing on hardcover is set to retail locally in Kenya for about Sh3,400.

Here is the synopsis:

On August 4th 2011 the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya, Raila Odinga, announced, through the local Kenyan media, that he had suspended Miguna Miguna indefinitely without pay as his senior adviser.

In his explosive new memoirs, Peeling Back the Mask, Miguna Miguna explains why he rejected the Prime Minister's subsequent offer of reinstatement and exposes Mr Odinga's lack-lustre leadership questioning his progressive credentials and claim that he is an agent of change.

Peeling Back the Mask presents a true insider's account of the intrigues, discussions and power plays that have occurred in Kenya's corridors of power in recent years. This is a must read for everyone interested in social justice and good governance in Africa.

Peeling Back the Mask also delves back to tell the remarkable tale of Miguna's early life, from humble origins, through privations and hardship, his university days and his years as a practicing lawyer overseas. A heartwarmingly personal African story.