Domino effect

In How It All Began, one act has repercussions across the lives of many characters.  Charlotte Rainsford, elderly but still active, is mugged one day, she loses more than her bag.  Injuries mean that she needs time to recuperate before she can move back to her own home, where the lives alone.  She moves in with her daughter Rose and son-in-law Gerry.  She...

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A barang guarded by nagas

Cambodia is the setting for Hunters in the Dark, a book about aimless Westerners who travel there to float along with no plans other than to live cheaply and escape from unsatisfying lives "back home."  The book mainly concerns Robert, an Englishman, and Simon, and American, and how their lives intersect with violent and unexpected consequences. The book is divided...

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Forgiving the worst

Most people, thankfully, never have to experience the horror of losing a child to violence.  When a child is murdered, it is natural to want the killer brought to justice and punished. In the touching book Forgiving My Daughter's Killer, Kate Grosmaire discusses the terrible events surrounding her daughter's death, and how she was able to find peace through forgiveness...

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They say you can't go back again

Bill Bryson is a man with something of a split personality.  Despite living most of his life in Britain, he still identifies himself as an American.  His newest book The Road to Little Dribbling is an updated version of one of his earlier books, Notes from a Small Island.  In the earlier book, he traveled around Britain as a fairly new inhabitant of the country...

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