One of the untold stories of World War II, “The Paradise War” is about gold. French gold. Three-hundred-fifty tons of bullion dispatched by man-of-war to the French West Indies when the Nazis overran the mother country in the spring of 1940. A goodly portion of the wealth of France, the gold was secreted behind the walls of an ancient fortress on the island of Martinique. There it lay in the early years of the war while Nazi U-Boats prowled the Caribbean and the island braced for invasion, a treasure far too tempting to resist. When America entered the war in December of '41, Martinique was the gateway to the West Indies, the Gibraltar of the Caribbean. French warships were bottled up in the Bay of Forte de France, invasion plans were being drawn up by British and Americans, and with the gold smoldering in the hills, the island was a hotbed of confusion and intrigue. Enter Dante O'Shea, US Navy Captain, sent to Martinique to seek out the mysterious "Skipjack," an enigmatic islander who has uncovered a plot to hijack the gold. Enter also Oberleutnant Viktor Reinmann, special envoy of German Admiral Karl Doenitz and a young submariner seeking more than gold in this balmy island paradise. Meet Christopher Delon, a French castaway with a volatile secret of his own and Nikole Rollet, physician and artist, who knows the island and its secrets better than the drawing rooms of her native Normandy. And last but not least, meet Lillette Bonnier, the youthful courtesan who may hold the key to the survival of them all.

World War II and the Caribbean focuses on one of the most exciting periods in the history of the region as the Caribbean territories faced incredible upheaval and opportunity during the war years. Local operations, cultural mores and the region's international image were forever changed by its pivotal role in the war effort. The chapters in this volume respond to the need for information and analysis on the wide-ranging impact of the war on territories in the region (English, French, Spanish and Dutch). The contributors cover topics such as the economic consequences of wartime activity (the food crisis and the decline of the agricultural sector), while highlighting the opportunities that arose for industry and enterprise in the Caribbean; the accommodations made by the European imperial nations and their attempts to tighten control over their Caribbean territories during the war; the intervention of the Americans in the region; the social impact of the war (the migration of German-speaking refugees and other groups) and the effects on Caribbean societies of this contact; and the impact of the war on public health and the broad spectrum experiences of women (as volunteers, nurses and sex-workers). This well-researched volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of military and conflict history, twentieth-century Caribbean history, and the general reader.

This carefully researched study is the first to chronicle the history of Allied involvement in the defense of British, French, and Dutch possessions in the Caribbean. The study is extremely well researched and well written. . . . The definitive work in this particular area of historical research, based on all available sources in English, French, and Dutch, published and unpublished. Choice Although few military campaigns were fought in the Caribbean, the region had strategic importance throughout World War II for the United States and its allies. This carefully researched study is the first to chronicle the history of Allied involvement in the defense of British, French, and Dutch possessions in the Caribbean. The first chapter examines the events and diplomacy that led in 1939 to Britain's granting the United States permission to base military facilities in Bermuda, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and to the creation of the Caribbean Sea Frontier. Later chapters detail the troubled course of British-American cooperation as U.S. military commitments--and regional dominance--increased. Also described is the role of the Netherlands, with Britain and the United States, in the defense of the oil and bauxite reserves in the Dutch Caribbean territories, and the friction between Britain and the United States over French Caribbean possessions. The final chapters analyze strategic shifts occuring as a result of the war and influencing postwar settlements negotiated for the region.

New Strangers in Paradise offers the first in-depth account of the ways in which contemporary American fiction has been shaped by the successive generations of immigrants to reach U.S. shores. Gilbert Muller reveals how the intersections of peoples, regions, and competing cultural histories have remade the American cultural landscape in the aftermath of World War II. Muller focuses on the literature of Holocaust survivors, Chicanos, Latinos, African Caribbeans, and Asian Americans. In the quest for a new identity, each of these groups seeks the American dream and rewrites the story of what it means to be an American. New Strangers in Paradise explores the psychology of uprooted peoples and the relations of culture and power, addressing issues of race and ethnicity, multiculturalism and pluralism, and national and international conflicts. Examining the groups of immigrants in the cultural and historical context both of America and of the lands from which they originated, Muller argues that this "fourth wave" of immigration has led to a creative flowering in modern fiction. The book offers a fresh perspective on the writings of Vladimir Nabokov, Sual Bellow, William Styron, Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Oscar Hijuelos, Jamaica Kincaid, Bharati Mukherjee, Rudolfo Anaya, and many others.