The Foreign Service Journal, November 2005

submarine picks up Margaret, but Ian is left behind. Back in London, when Margaret fails to hear from Ian, she disguises herself as a nun and returns to Tours, vow- ing to find him. We are drawn into this engrossing story by the author’s skill in developing the characters and making their action and the terrain through which they move come alive. Ken Byrnes, a lieutenant colonel in U.S. Air Force (Intelligence), is a 23-year veteran of the Foreign Service. After serving as consul general in Izmir, Turkey, he opted for early retirement and went into the field of foreign trade and investment, where he continued his world trav- els. He has had short stories, poems and articles pub- lished, including several in the Foreign Service Journal . A novel, The Daughter of Ramon Godoy (1st Books Library, 2002), is based on his experiences as a vice consul in Mexico City. Byrnes lives in Powell, Ohio, with his wife, and is working on another novel. East to the Bottom K.D. Hewitt, AuthorHouse, 2005, $14.95, paperback, 305 pages. In this vivid first novel, K. D. Hewitt takes us into the life of an African-American family whose roots in Washington, D.C., and Foggy Bottom in particular, go back six genera- tions. It is the life saga of the author’s own free black ante- bellum Georgetown ancestors from 1857 to the present, seen through the eyes of young Calley MacAllister, a fic- tional descendant. Tales of romance, war, suffrage, racke- teering and murder are interwoven with historical events from the Civil War on. In this rich history of her ancestors, the author paints an inspiring and enduring portrait of the strength and vitality of the seemingly typical, yet unique African-American family. K.D. Hewitt, an African-American Foreign Service spouse, was born and raised in the Foggy Bottom district of Washington, D.C. She, her husband and two children are now posted in Dhaka. Tales Before Midnight Ted Mason, Bartleby Press, 2005, $12.95, paperback, 260 pages. “All are signposts along the way in a lifetime of observing people and their reactions to the tricks they play on each other and life plays on them, and you can read them in any order you like.” This is how author Ted Mason describes this delightful collection of short stories written during the course of his 30-year career in government service over- seas. The stories are grouped chronologically from the world of boyhood to the great world outside, and explore a wide range of human emotion and events — such as the escape of a hybrid mix of tiger and lion, a tiglon, from the fictional town of Quassatuck’s new zoo; a young writer’s early lesson in prejudice and censorship; and the libera- tion of a forgotten French town by a deserter in World War II. Though it is often said that truth is stranger than fiction, in these stories fiction rings truer than truth. Ted Mason served as a political intelligence analyst for U.S.-European Command headquarters in France during the 1960s. He joined the Foreign Service in 1967 and served with USIA in Vietnam, Morocco and Madagascar as a training officer and public affairs offi- cer until 1985, when he retired. He is the author of a novel, Hostage to Fortune (Bartleby Press, 1999). Possessed by Shadows Donigan Merritt, Other Press, 2005, $22.00, hardcover, 239 pages. “An avid rock climber refuses to go gently in Merritt’s gorgeous sixth novel … a compelling and trag- ic love story,” says Publishers Weekly about Possessed by Shadows . Set in Southern California and Czechoslo- vakia, the book tells the story of journalist Molly and philosophy professor Tom Valen, both world-class mountaineers. A climbing accident leads to the discov- ery that Molly has a fatal brain tumor: thereafter, the story alternates between Tom’s account of the year before her death, when they climbed together in France and the High Tatra mountains of Czechoslo- vakia, and Molly’s journals, which reveal much that Tom never knew of her life, including a dark secret concerning Stefan, a fellow climber who once saved Tom’s life. The story is a tribute to selfless love and the bonds of friendship forged in the extremes of high mountains. “Not only a book for climbers, it is a book for everybody,” says Zoltan Demjan, the first Slovak mountaineer to reach the summit of Mount Everest. “Soulful and transformative, it is a journey to our inner world, to find our inner voice.” Merritt Donigan is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the author of five previous novels, F O C U S 38 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 5