On Time, Memory, and Reconciliation
Several things have converged in the last few days to make me think about time, memory, and reconciliation. But it’s not an easy topic! St. Augustine had it right: “If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it, I don’t know.” But he tried and so do we. Here’s the convergence: [...]
On Markets and Families
American Conservatism is indeed at a crossroads without a map. In a recent article, Yuval Levin (“The Republicans’ Road Back,’ Newsweek, March 16, 2009, p. 33) states “conservatives have sought to preserve and secure the values of the family and the market against an encroaching progressivism…” This seems to exemplify the failure of conservative theory rather [...]
Reconciliation with Earth: Some Questions and Probings
Red Clay, Blood River raises the question of what it means to find reconciliation with the Earth. Or is it “reconciliation with Earth”? Perhaps the latter, for we always want to see reconciliation in inter-personal terms. In my own life and culture this interpersonal form of reconciliation has been a powerful one. But it only [...]
Review by Wisteria Leigh
The Historical Novels Review Online (a service of the Historical Novel Society) has just published a review by Wisteria Leigh. The complete review can be found at the Review (http://historicalnovelsociety.org/hnr-online.htm) and at Wisteria Leigh’s blog for February 15, where you can find a cornucopia of information, reviews, conversation, interviews, and book suggestions. Here are a few [...]
William J. Everett
In my teaching career I authored eight books and numerous articles in social ethics and religion. After over thirty years of academic work — in Germany, India, and South Africa as well as in the United States — I wanted to turn my hand to a poetically written novel to probe the issues of ecological and human reconciliation.
When I am not writing, I create furniture for worship settings. For more about my work, go to www.WisdomsTable.net, where you will also find galleries of artwork by my wife Sylvia, whose ancestors were the original inspiration for Red Clay, Blood River. Click to read my complete bio...
Red Clay Blood River
Red Clay, Blood River is a story told by Earth about two brothers from Germany and an enslaved South African woman whose lives bind together America’s “Trail of Tears” and South Africa’s simultaneous “Great Trek” of 1838. Memories of their journeys through oppression, estrangement and reconciliation reverberate in the lives of three contemporary students brought together by their interests in ecology. Through their often difficult friendship and a surprising discovery they begin to unravel the mystery of their estrangements, struggles, and deep connections to each other and to the earth.
Based on extensive research in the United States, South Africa, and England, this book takes readers through a sweeping saga of love and conflict in the context of emigration, invasion, slavery, and exploitation. Through its stories we are invited to see our fractured human history from within the sensibilities of an earth that seeks the flourishing of all creatures and transcends their deaths within its life.
I welcome you to read Excerpts from Red Clay Blood River.
You can also view some Reader's Responses to the book.
If you are already reading Red Clay, Blood River, check out the Reader's Guide and Glossary of Names.
If you are in a Book Club, go to the Guide for Discussion Groups.
If you want to know more about people who helped me in writing this book check out the People Present at the Creation.