Book Around the Corner

Subject: book review request

Title: A PLACE CALLED SCHUGARA
(Multicultural/literary fiction; 133,000 words; 520 pages)
Published by: Line by Lion Publishing, Louisville, Ky, [NOT a vanity/subsidy/participation press]

Dear Avid Reader,

I believe that, since you are addicted to well-written words with meat on the bone, you will like A PLACE CALLED SCHUGARA–a lot. It contrasts the ennui and despair of late Twentieth Century America with the caring culture of “Mabouhey,” an island in the Caribbean.

Here’s what Dr. Richard Hanson, Professor Emeritus (English), University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
has to say about A PLACE CALLED SCHUGARA:

A PLACE CALLED SHUGARA offers an interesting variety of unusual characters, from
frustrated and unhappy Midwesterners to shrewdly enterprising Caribbean natives
whose colorful patois is entertaining and delightful. Three of those characters–a
jaded academic from Chicago, a desperate factory owner from Ohio, and an
opportunistic insurance investigator from New York–are drawn to a place that
lovingly welcomes the three misfits. None is actively seeking spiritual rebirth as the
story begins and each has his own reason for traveling to the little island, but the
serendipitous result for all three is essentially the same: a renewal of life and spiritual
wholeness among the inhabitants of a loving community that lives in a place called
Schugara. Along with its cast of colorful characters the novel also contains a memorable
blend of rollicking humor and poignant emotion, qualities that will linger in the memory
of every reader.

Synopsis:

A Place Called Shugara is the story of three Americans who come together on the Caribbean island Mabouhey at a place called Schugara. Travers Landeman, an Ohio businessman, escapes a failing marriage and a failing business. Mourning the suicide of his nephew, he flees to Mabouhey, where he fakes his death. Joe Rogers, owner of The Yellow Harp bookstore in Chicago, leads a group of amateur archeologists to Mabouhey. He finds a pre-Columbian treasure, a jeweled mask dating to the Arawak era. Albert Sidney McNab, a private investigator, is hired by the Atlantis Fidelity Insurance Company to search for Travers. Travers discovers his nephew’s diary, which tells of his nephew’s sexual abuse by his parish priest, Father Art. He feels obligated to return to his former life to bring Father Art to justice. Joe, who has his own axe to grind with the Atlantis Fidelity Insurance Company, persuades Travers that it is better to leave that task to Albert. Albert consents, for the love he has found on Mabouhey, a woman named Esmerelda, matters more than the money he may or may not get from Atlantis Fidelity. Albert, Esmerelda, and the mask go to the United States. Father Art is beaten to death in his jail cell while awaiting trial. As United Nations Ambassador of its newest member nation, the Commonwealth of the Island of Mabouhey, Mrs. Esmerelda McNab has the mask auctioned at Sotheby’s, despite protestors from Columbia University who denounce the sale as “cultural genocide.”

Author’s Bio:

Along with William Carlos Williams, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and Victor Cruz, Joe English is a proud son of Paterson, New Jersey (with one “t.”) He came of age in Mexico City, Mexico. He worked as a ranch hand at the Wild Horn Ranch in Florissant, Colorado. He has a B. A. cum laude from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and an M. A. from Rice University in Houston, Texas. English is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He has lived for 48 years in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s west side. When Austin resegregated from 100% Caucasian to 95+% African-American in 1970-71, English was one of a handful of residents who cast down their buckets with their new neighbors. As a minority in a majority minority community, he has a unique perspective on the state of urban America. English was featured in a 60 Minutes broadcast as a first hand witness to neighborhood resegregation in Chicago. He was a professor at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, for sixteen years. He founded Oak Park Real Estate in 1984, which provided decent, safe, and affordable housing, primarily in the Austin neighborhood. At its peak, Oak Park Real Estate managed 900 residential apartments. He still maintains a residence in Austin but now spends much of his time in Sosua, Dominican Republic, founded by Jewish refugees in the late 1930’s who were fleeing Hitler’s tyranny. “I live in two soulful places,” English says. “I am doubly blessed.” English’s writings have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Reader and Co-Existence, the literary journal which featured the works of Henry Miller. His most recent publication, the short story Mrs. Padgett’s Pearls, was selected by Zimbell House Publishing for the anthology After Effects.

Please view SCHUGARA’s website: http://sites.google.com/view/schugara
or schugara.com The book’s cover is on this site.

Please let me know if I may send you a copy (paperback or electronic file) for your review consideration.

Maximum respect,
Joe English

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