The Foreign Service Journal, November 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2012 49 name of a Slavic girls’ game, “Secrets.” Daryna’s curiosity about the past brings painful revelations and an internal struggle over whether to reveal these dark truths to the world. Nina Shevchuk- Murray’s translation captures Zabuzhko’s vivid descriptions and subtle acknowledgement of gender issues and sexuality. Oksana Zabuzhko is a well-known writer in Ukraine, whose novel Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex was named “the most influen- tial Ukrainian book for the 15 years of independence.” Transla- tor Nina Shevchuk-Murray is a Foreign Service officer currently serving in Vilnius. A translator of Russian and Ukrainian, she also writes poetry in English that has appeared in a number of literary journals. Searching for Home Ann Gaylia O’Barr, OakTara Publishers, 2011, $18.95, paperback, 267 pages. Hannah Forbes’ fiancé left two years before on an ill-fated trip to Haiti and never returned. Stuck in a dull job in the United States and unable to mend her heart, Hannah takes off to visit her nomadic best friend, a Foreign Service officer in Cyprus. The exotic escape brings adventure and kindles new romance when she meets a mysterious and handsome U.S. diplomat, Patrick Holtzman. Hannah’s job in Nashville soon loses its comfortable appeal and she takes the risk of a lifetime: leaving America and picking up the paintbrushes she had left untouched since the loss of her former love. She gets more than she bargained for when her new life in the Middle East is upended by regional chaos, and she and Patrick must confront the scarred pasts each is longing to escape. Ann Gaylia O’Barr is a retired Foreign Service officer whose travels during her 14-year career spanned Saudi Arabia (twice), Algeria, Canada, Tunisia and Washington, D.C. Like Hannah, she is fromNashville, but now lives on Whidbey Island in Washington state. Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories M.G. Edwards, Brilliance Press, 2011, $8.99, paperback, 144 pages. Mike Edwards wrote these 15 short stories over a period of 30 years, beginning in his youth. He covers a wide variety of themes and topics inspired by dreams and experi- ences over those years. These stories encompass a boy’s fantasies and an adult man’s maturation. A young boy finds himself the protector of geneti- cally modified army ants that have escaped from the military. An old woman considered to be mentally ill may have reason for her outbursts, while a prisoner of war writes letters of hope from his Nazi concentration camp during World War II. And a gloomy maintenance man turns out to have a terrifying history. Mike Edwards was a Foreign Service officer for 11 years, leav- ing in 2011 to focus on writing. He now lives inThailand with his wife, Jing, a Foreign Service specialist at Embassy Bangkok, and their son. He is also the author of the memoir, Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill (see p. 36). Rhymes of the Antipodes (New England, West Virginia and New Zealand) Peter P. Lord, Xlibris, 2009, $19.99, paperback, 158 pages. This collection of poems is a reflection on the author’s travels, specifically in his early years, through New England, West Virginia and New Zealand. Lord has a real knack for conveying the natural beauty of each locale, and the emotional ties it represents. The poems lucidly express the natural beauty of these places— from the stone walls, lightning bugs and autumn leaves of New England and the thunderstorms and dogwood flowers of West Virginia to the tides, winds and mountains overlooking the Tas- man Bay in New Zealand. Though the book groups the poems geographically, the author also includes a small section, “Antipo- des,” containing pieces that tie these places, their beauty and his experiences in them all together. Peter P. Lord grew up in a 19th-century home in Boxford Vil- lage, north of Boston. He joined the Foreign Service in 1956 for a 30-year diplomatic career that took him to Iran, Venezuela, Peru, Barbados, Zambia and Cameroon. Today he divides his time between West Virginia and New Zealand. English-Turn (Détour-Anglois) Thomas Christian Williams, CreateSpace, 2012, $12, paperback, 298 pages. English-Turn (Detour-Anglais) isn’t just another alternate history novel. It’s also a metaphor for the modern-day clash of civiliza- tions. The rise of capitalism, democracies and free trade, and the Arab Spring are all folded into a single, mind-warping, history- changing, epic adventure.