Our young people are dying, constantly being murdered by senseless acts of violence. They are dying in unprecedented numbers¾not on the battleground of foreign lands¾but in the schools¾and on the streets of their very own cities. RUMBLE OF DISTANT THUNDER is a story born out of love and compassion for these children. For already in the distance an ominous cloud has formed forecasting destruction, wars, and global famine for their future. No one seems to care enough and so, they are become the forgotten ones. Violence is robbing our youth of the simplicity of pleasure, their childhood. RUMBLE paves a way from such gloom that threatens to destroy our children and our society. It teaches self-respect and the value of human life. Within the first chapters, you will meet SOJOURNER, a star-ship that is one of the principal characters. Its primary function is to travel the galaxies, while monitoring the "Chosen Ones" stationed throughout the universe. You will meet Darius; a seventeen-year-old inner?city youth who is forced to ward off everyday events that threatens his survival. Through a series of events and prophecies, he learns that there is a special call on his life—and an inescapable destiny. Young Darius and his friends have seen the results of living in such a violent and moralless society. He has seen childhood friends senselessly gunned down, others trying to escape by way of drugs, leaving to mourn their shattered lives friends and loved ones. Darius is troubled and saddened by all that is happening around him. Powerless to do anything about it for the moment, he pledges that somehow, he WILL make a difference. The unsuspecting youth learns through an age?old prophecy that he is a prince and direct descendant of the Wantu?Wazuri, a supremely advanced race that had once visited our world over twelve thousand years ago. In their observation of human development, they were overwhelmed with concern for the children they were to leave behind. Upon their departure, they endowed the lives of these children with positive effects and indelible marks of more advanced and intelligent civilizations. Unbeknownst to Darius the prophecy is unfolding itself. Elsewhere in the Universe, the Council of Elders are convening and collectively using their telepathic powers to summon and prepare him for the leadership of his people. As Darius’ appointed time draws near, he begins to speak out of love and self?respect to all that will listen, while Jamaal, a young, ruthless killer, and leader of a powerful drug?gang, is determined to protect his own interests. The escalating violence surrounding him continues to fill Darius with questions as he struggles to understand why, and the call on his life. Through Ganna, his spiritual guardian and mentor, Darius knows he must accept his fate. The decision to leave Earth even temporarily is tough, but he knows that if his world is to survive at all, he must go. Arriving with his family and some of his closest friends on Wantu?Wazuria, the Central Seat of government for the vast, expanding empire, the struggle intensifies as Efuru, the evil and manipulating wife of the late Emperor Nkombe?the?Great, attempts to thwart his ascension to the throne. This humble, yet lion?hearted youth learns that for the last five hundred years, the Wantu?Wazurians were peaceful and prosperous people. Now, after the Emperor´s death, his wife fights to have her evil and treacherous son rule, despite the prophecies that the throne would be torn from her grasps and given to an off?worlder. Ignoring the ancient prophecies, Efuru continues her campaign for her son´s rights against the Will of God and the Council of Elders who had refused to reinstate him honoring the request of his father on his deathbed. Prince Naamesis, extremely bitter over that decision, rebels and leads a revolt against Darius. But while on Khorsabad, a world outside the Empire, he is killed during an assas

**Winner of the Noma Prize for New Writers** Set in rural Japan as the height of the bubble economy, Distant Thunder tells of a farming village gradually effaced by urbanization, corruption, and greed. After Matsuzo Wada has sold off the family's land and left his wife for another woman, his son Mitsuo is determined to support himself and his mother in the traditional manner, farming. All that remains of his ancestors' lands is a hothouse, in which he grows tomatoes to sell to the housewives the nearby apartment complex, built on a former rice field. When his childhood friend, Koji, becomes entangled in an adulterous love affair which ultimately destroys him and those around him, Mitsuo begins to see how the town's hedonistic excesses are laying to waste not only the landscape, but also the communal and familial bonds and the values that once sustained them all. Translated from Japanese by Lawrence J. Howell and Hikaru Morimoto.

Our young people are dying, constantly being murdered by senseless acts of violence. They are dying in unprecedented numbersnot on the battleground of foreign landsbut in the schoolsand on the streets of their very own cities. RUMBLE OF DISTANT THUNDER is a story born out of love and compassion for these children. For already in the distance an ominous cloud has formed forecasting destruction, wars, and global famine for their future. No one seems to care enough and so, they are become the forgotten ones. Violence is robbing our youth of the simplicity of pleasure, their childhood. RUMBLE paves a way from such gloom that threatens to destroy our children and our society. It teaches self-respect and the value of human life. Within the first chapters, you will meet SOJOURNER, a star-ship that is one of the principal characters. Its primary function is to travel the galaxies, while monitoring the "Chosen Ones" stationed throughout the universe. You will meet Darius; a seventeen-year-old inner?city youth who is forced to ward off everyday events that threatens his survival. Through a series of events and prophecies, he learns that there is a special call on his lifeand an inescapable destiny. Young Darius and his friends have seen the results of living in such a violent and moralless society. He has seen childhood friends senselessly gunned down, others trying to escape by way of drugs, leaving to mourn their shattered lives friends and loved ones. Darius is troubled and saddened by all that is happening around him. Powerless to do anything about it for the moment, he pledges that somehow, he WILL make a difference. The unsuspecting youth learns through an age?old prophecy that he is a prince and direct descendant of the Wantu?Wazuri, a supremely advanced race that had once visited our world over twelve thousand years ago. In their observation of human development, they were overwhelmed with concern for the children they were to leave behind. Upon their departure, they endowed the lives of these children with positive effects and indelible marks of more advanced and intelligent civilizations. Unbeknownst to Darius the prophecy is unfolding itself. Elsewhere in the Universe, the Council of Elders are convening and collectively using their telepathic powers to summon and prepare him for the leadership of his people. As Darius appointed time draws near, he begins to speak out of love and self?respect to all that will listen, while Jamaal, a young, ruthless killer, and leader of a powerful drug?gang, is determined to protect his own interests. The escalating violence surrounding him continues to fill Darius with questions as he struggles to understand why, and the call on his life. Through Ganna, his spiritual guardian and mentor, Darius knows he must accept his fate. The decision to leave Earth even temporarily is tough, but he knows that if his world is to survive at all, he must go. Arriving with his family and some of his closest friends on Wantu?Wazuria, the Central Seat of government for the vast, expanding empire, the struggle intensifies as Efuru, the evil and manipulating wife of the late Emperor Nkombe?the?Great, attempts to thwart his ascension to the throne. This humble, yet lion?hearted youth learns that for the last five hundred years, the Wantu?Wazurians were peaceful and prosperous people. Now, after the Emperors death, his wife fights to have her evil and treacherous son rule, despite the prophecies that the throne would be torn from her grasps and given to an off?worlder. Ignoring the ancient prophecies, Efuru continues her campaign for her sons rights against the Will of God and the Council of Elders who had refused to reinstate him honoring the request of his father on his deathbed. Prince Naamesis, extremely bitter over that decision, rebels and leads a revolt against Darius. But while on Khorsabad, a world outside the Empire, he is killed during an assassin

The Great Bengal Famine of 1943 forms the backdrop for the novel Ashani Sanket, written contemporaneously by the greatest portrayer of rural Bengal, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Through the eyes of Ananga, her husband Gangacharan and their compatriots, the author has drawn with deep sympathy their daily lives in a remote village as they face with utter bewilderment the onset of the famine--the distant thunder. Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay is an iconic and beloved Bengali writer of the twentieth century. His novels Pather Panchali ('Song of the Road') and Aparajito ('The Unvanquished') were made into the famous 'Apu Trilogy' by Satyajit Ray, another iconic movie director (Life-time Oscar, 1992). Ray also made a movie based on this novel Ashani Sanket ('Distant Thunder') which conquered the Golden Bear in Berlin Film Festival and is claimed by New York Times as being one of the 1000 best movies ever made.

ARLISS Glasstar's humdrum existence is changed forever as she finds herself running for her life accompanied by three rather odd looking characters as they are they're pursued by a frightening band of men on horseback rapidly bearing on them. She has no choice but to enter the well between the worlds and travel to Eartheart.

These stories by immigrant writers remind us that in a way we are all immigrants.