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MyWikiBiz, Author Your Legacy — Saturday January 04, 2025
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Eight years after begining, we finally have a book that I think will be enjoyed by the general public.
Eight years after begining, we finally have a book that I think will be enjoyed by the general public.
=== From the Inside Flap ===
Kisses from a Distance chronicles a Lebanese immigrant experience -- based on a cache of more than 200 letters discovered after the death of the author's mother. This fascinating correspondence spans fifty-five years of her "kisses from a distance" from family and friends in her native Lebanon. The tale begins with the kidnapping of the author's grandmother from a remote convent in 1895. It chronicles her subsequent unhappy marriage, whose emotional and financial difficulties culminate in her husband's tragic attempt to find success in America. In the meantime, the oppressive rule of the Ottoman Empire, the ravages of the First World War, natural disasters, starvation and disease take their toll on the vulnerable people of Lebanon. Kisses also reports the travails of the author's father, who left Lebanon in 1914 to join his sister in a wintry backwater in northern New York State. When he returns to Lebanon ten years later to find a bride and bring her to America, his arranged marriage with the author's mother eerily echoes that of the previous generation, with high expectations and inevitable disappointments. Employing traditional Lebanese proverbs and folk tales, Kisses from a Distance also weaves the author's extensive research and visits to Lebanon into the narrative. This journey, so worthwhile for him, will reward the reader as well.
=== From the Back Cover ===
When they were about halfway to New York, another commotion arose that swept over the ship like a tidal wave. The news concerned Archduke Ferdinand and his wife being assassinated in Serbia, which caused some to speculate that this act was a precursor to war. Toufic had never heard of these people, and it didn't occur to him that such an event would have any repercussions in his homeland.
People were talking about the Austrians, Germans, and Turks being allied against the French, British, and Russians. Rumors crossed from language to language and spread throughout the steerage compartment. This made time pass more quickly, if uneasily, as people tried to make sense of what they were hearing. Rumors begat rumors, and by the time they were mistranslated into the various tongues, they would bear no resemblance to the original story. Toufic also eavesdropped on passengers as they were reading bulletins aloud as soon as they were posted on the deck's message board. Once he heard someone say there was work in a place called Detroit and that a man named Henry Ford was paying wages of five dollars a day.
He wondered who Henry Ford was and how much five dollars was in piasters. When he was told its worth, he calculated that it would take a month to earn that at the stone quarry, which then caused him to wonder where Detroit was.
The trip from Queenstown to New York took only five days, and soon the ship dropped anchor in the Narrows of New York Harbor. An announcement was made that the boat had been placed in quarantine for a medical inspection, and they would have to wait until cleared by examiners before they could dock in New York Harbor. - Kisses from a Distance
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