Fire In The Lake

Frances FitzGerald's landmark history of Vietnam and the Vietnam War, "a compassionate and penetrating account of the collision of two societies that remain untranslatable to one another." (New York Times Book Review) This magisterial work, based on Frances FitzGerald's many years of research and travels, takes us inside the history of Vietnam -- the traditional, ancestor-worshiping villages, the conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists, Catholics and Buddhists, generals and monks, the disruption created by French colonialism, and America's ill-fated intervention -- and reveals the country as seen through Vietnamese eyes. Originally published in 1972, Fire in the Lake was the first history of Vietnam written by an American and won the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the National Book Award. With a clarity and insight unrivaled by any author before it or since, Frances FitzGerald illustrates how America utterly and tragically misinterpreted the realities of Vietnam.

"The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam"--Jacket subtitle.

The Lake on Fire is an epic narrative that begins among 19th century Jewish immigrants on a failing Wisconsin farm. Dazzled by lore of the American dream, Chaya and her strange, brilliant, young brother Asher stowaway to Chicago; what they discover there, however, is a Gilded Age as empty a façade as the beautiful Columbian Exposition luring thousands to Lake Michigan’s shore. The pair scrapes together a meager living—Chaya in a cigar factory; Asher, roaming the city and stealing books and jewelry to share with the poor, until they find different paths of escape. An examination of family, love, and revolution, this profound tale resonates eerily with today’s current events and tumultuous social landscape. The Lake on Fire is robust, gleaming, and grimy all at once, proving that celebrated author Rosellen Brown is back with a story as luminous as ever.

In the Sixties, the Flower Children were making love not war, the Hippies were dropping acid and protesting Vietnam and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was demanding civil rights. Cults, communes and live-ins sprang up around the country. One charismatic leader started a cult in New England that continues to this day. This shocking true story tells of one girl's life in that cult. Brought there as a three year old, cut off from all contact with the outside world, the young Andie struggles to survive in a world that is both claustrophobic and frightening. In the wake of Jonestown, Waco and Heaven's Gate, we see a closeup view of life in a cult and a young girl's escape from one brave new world to another.

A blind boy and his dog are alone when their cabin catches fire.

When American authorities learn that a nuclear missile may have been spirited away by the Castro regime during the Cuban Missile Crisis and that their enemies are planning to use it against them, the CIA calls upon Dalton Drake, a dauntless Canadian private intelligence contractor, to uncover the truth. Embarking on a perilous journey to Cuba, Drake and his elite team soon find themselves enmeshed in a web of intrigue involving Cuba, Venezuela, China, and American political radicals, who are conspiring to dismantle the very foundations of American power. Their goal: to usher in a new world order with China at the top and to vanquish US leadership. As Drake and his team race against time, their pursuit takes them on a high-stakes odyssey across Cuba, Central America, the Caribbean, Canada, and the US. With the fate of the west and also his family hanging in the balance, this is Drake’s most personal mission yet.

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner: “The terrifying story of the worst disaster in the history of the US Forest Service’s elite Smokejumpers.” —Kirkus Reviews A devastating and lyrical work of nonfiction, Young Men and Fire describes the events of August 5, 1949, when a crew of fifteen of the US Forest Service’s elite airborne firefighters, the Smokejumpers, stepped into the sky above a remote forest fire in the Montana wilderness. Two hours after their jump, all but three of the men were dead or mortally burned. Haunted by these deaths for forty years, Norman Maclean puts together the scattered pieces of the Mann Gulch tragedy in this extraordinary book. Alongside Maclean’s now-canonical A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Young Men and Fire is recognized today as a classic of the American West. This edition of Maclean’s later triumph—the last book he would write—includes a powerful new foreword by Timothy Egan, author of The Big Burn and The Worst Hard Time. As moving and profound as when it was first published, Young Men and Fire honors the literary legacy of a man who gave voice to an essential corner of the American soul. “A moving account of humanity, nature, and the perseverance of the human spirit.” —Library Journal “Haunting.” —The Wall Street Journal “Engrossing.” —Publishers Weekly

Captures the magic and beauty of the Olympic Games.

"In May of 1968, Susan Sontag visited Hanoi. The report of her trip is neither a political treatise nor a travelogue, but a sensitive observer's response to a world totally foreign to the Western mind. During her trip, Susan Sontag discovered her preconception of North Vietnam and it's people had little relevance to the actual situation. By reassessing her own point of view, Miss Sontag creates a startling picture of life in Hanoi"--Page 4 of cover

Combines poignant photography with the writings of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author to create a portrait of contemporary Vietnam healed from the war and replete with lush landscapes, customs, villages, traditions, and cities. 15,000 first printing.