The Foreign Service Journal, November 2010

N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 45 autobiographical influences shine in this passionate tale of intertwining revolution and romance. Sheila Coral Grimes lives in Arlington, Va. She speaks seven languages and has served as a diplomatic interpreter and French teacher. In addition to her roles as writer, grandmother and great-grandmother, she is an accomplished concert pianist and continues to give solo concerts in the Washington, D.C., area. All pro- ceeds from A Modest Silence will be donated to the charity Fisher House. Indus Suite Coming and Going Love Poems Patricia Lee Sharpe, Finishing Line Press, 2009 and 2010, each $14, paperback, 30 pages. These two handbound volumes of poetry are full of life. Indus Suite , written while Pat Sharpe was serving as public affairs officer at the American consulate in Karachi, captures the aura of Pakistan in poetic form. Sharpe also manages to get at the realities behind the veils of culture and gender. Says Pakistani poet Fahmida Riaz, “In these poems Karachi comes alive with a height- ened awareness of its natural flow, its smells and sounds, its color and light, and she renders them palpa- ble, all these aspects of the city where we lived, that we love and have quarreled with.” In Coming and Going Love Poems , the author casts a lively and discerning eye on the realities of love relationships. A different type of “love poem,” says editor Leah Maines, these verses are fast-paced and sure to startle. Patricia Sharpe, a retired FSO with the U.S. Information Agency, served in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Tanzania, Nige- ria, Sierra Leone and the Dominican Republic. She is the author of The Deadmen and Other Poems (Writer’s Workshop, Calcutta) and is the principal translator for Four Walls and a Black Veil by Fahmida Riaz (Oxford University Press, 2005). Now living in New Mexico, Continued from page 39