These two memoirs, superbly rendered into English for the first time, provide unique windows into the Sumatran past, in particular, and the early twentieth-century history of Southeast Asia, in general. Originally published soon after the Indonesian Revolution (1945-1949) liberated the island chain from Dutch control, these unusually insightful narratives recall the authors' boyhoods in rural Toba Batak and Minangkabau villages. In reconstructing their own passage into adulthood, the writers inevitably tell the story of their country's turbulent journey from colonial subjugation through...

This book brings together top scholars from various backgrounds to explore methodologies for studying ritual and Catholicism. The essays focus on particular aspects of ritual within Catholic practice, such as liturgy and performance and healing rituals.

This study presents the text and first English translation of a Sumatran turi-turian or chanted epic called the tale of Datuk Tuongku Aji Malim Leman, the hero's name. This is a famous southern Batak story from the town of Sipirok. The version at issue, in the Angkola Batak language, was published as a folkloric but also rather novelistic printed paperback book for a popular southern Batak audience in 1941, at the end of Dutch colonial rule in the Indies. This sly book version of Datuk Tuongku by the novelist and newspaperman M.J. Soetan Hasoendoetan, gave southern Batak readers...

Music has the power to heal. Discovered while busking on the streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Jessie Wheeler -- once a teen runaway from Prince Edward Island - is now a popular singer-songwriter and actor. On the day her boyfriend Charlie proposes, he kicks an estranged friend - actor Josh Sawyer - out of his Club. Jessie sees something of herself reflected in Josh's sorrowful chocolate brown eyes -- a deep loneliness and angst. When a part on Josh's new television series Drifters becomes available, Jessie can't resist the temptation, despite the fact that taking the part threatens...

Promises is the second book in the Drifters series, following A Song For Josh.

Jessie Wheelers past catches up with her as an old nemesis settles in Vancouver, threatening to destroy any chance at the singers newfound happiness. But Jessie is an old hat at acting. She has picked up the habit of disappearing inside herself and creating characters in order to help herself survive. Backed into a corner by Deuce McCall, she relies on a tougher version of herself to help her through the dark days while she seeks a solution to free herself of Deuces clutches. As she tries to gain a foothold in...

Book 3 of the Drifters series A lonely man works to help the homeless on the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver - it is his way of telling his old friend, Jessie Wheeler, that he cares about her world and what's important to her. Meanwhile, Jessie has made a choice that reverberates around the world. Upon finding Josh - the love of her life - in a smelly garbage pile, she told him there is always hope. Now she clings to that advice herself, hoping against hope she will find her way back to him, to Josh, to the man whose chestnut hair she loves to tuck behind his ear, the man who helped her find a...

Healing is the hardest part... Quaint patchwork Prince Edward Island, Canada, has turned out to be a great place to hide. In an attempt to reconnect after the tumultuous and terrifying events of the past few years, Jessie and Josh have squirreled themselves into a weathered grey farmhouse on the island's north shore, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they find themselves lost in a rip current of fear and bad memories they feel powerless to escape. One day, an old Wheeler family friend shoves a mysterious white box under their noses. Afraid it will unleash more pain the couple feel they can't...

A brokenhearted couple's brutal game deepens when it takes a right turn, resulting in the desperate need for a heartless single-minded outcome. Although the intended victim is really Josh, it's Jessie who finds herself in the crossfire, a necessary pawn in the vicious plot. Around Jessie are people she loves who are all struggling to figure out where they fit in and how they can help. In the end, choosing what's most important in life leaves a trail of broken hearts, while the trigger-quick actions of two men in the face of a heartsick woman's final choice drive home the true meaning of...

"Practicing Catholic "brings together top scholars from various backgrounds to explore methodologies for studying ritual and Catholicism. The essays focus on particular aspects of ritual within Catholic practice, such as liturgy and performance and healing rituals.