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Flights
Flights, a novel about travel in the twenty-first century and human anatomy, is Olga Tokarczuk's most ambitious to date. It interweaves travel narratives and reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion and migration. From the seventeenth century, we have the story of the Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyen, who dissected and drew pictures of his own amputated leg. From the eighteenth century, we have the story of a North African-born slave turned Austrian courtier stuffed and put on display after his death. In the nineteenth century, we follow Chopin's heart as it makes the covert journey from Paris to Warsaw. In the present we have the trials of a wife accompanying her much older husband as he teaches a course on a cruise ship in the Greek islands and the harrowing story of a young husband whose wife and child mysteriously vanish on a holiday on a Croatian island. With her signature grace and insight, Olga Tokarczuk guides the reader beyond the surface layer of modernity and towards the core of the very nature of humankind.
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Josephine Macleod and Vivekananda's Mission
Josephine MacLeod (1858 1949) was an American friend and devotee of Swami Vivekananda. She had a strong attachment to India and was an active participant in the Ramakrishna Vivekananda movement. Given the nicknames Tantine and Jo Jo by Swami Vivekananda, she became his staunchest friend, though never claiming to be a disciple. To spread Vivekananda and his message of the potential divinity of human beings became Tantine's life mission...A well researched, illustrated biography, this book will inspire the reader to a better understanding of Swami Vivekananda's mission and contribution to the uplift of humanity.