"Tales in a Minor Key" is a collection of short stories, about twentieth century Central European Jews coping with the trials and aftereffects of the two world wars and of the twin evils of fascism and communism.The narrator of "Dachau Idyll," a Romanian Jew, and her physician husband Gabriel, settle in Dachau after the war and try to pass as Catholics there. Before long, to sustain this lie, they go as far as pretending that Gabriel had served in Africa under Rommel. Living in constant fear of being exposed seriously affects the narrator's own sense of identity. In "Feeding the Piranhas," on the pier of Lisbon harbor, after the fall of Berlin, two Romanian Jews who had managed to weather the war in neutral Portugal, buy passage to Brazil for Nazis fleeing Europe. The payment is made in suitcases stuffed with German stocks, which after a thorough laundering in a Zurich bank, establish the two Jews as millionaires, while also leading to severe unintended consequences.The narrator in "The Treasure Hunters' Burdens" returns to his native Romania after the fall of communism to search for the ring and the manuscript of a nineteenth century ancestor. In this search he is helped by his childhood friends and has to confront some of the agents of the deposed communist regime. In the process, connections between his friends and the communist authorities get revealed and the question of just what qualifies as honorable behavior in a totalitarian society assumes a central role.In "A Stabbing Pain" a physician in Romania is called to attend to a patient who claims to be on the run from the communist secret police, but who may himself be a member of that very police force, sent to entrap the doctor. The physician faces the choice of denouncing his patient to the authorities, or of remaining silent. If however the patient is a police agent, not reporting him, the doctor would be signing his own and his young wife's arrest warrants. These sad stories deal with deep moral issues, and at the same time are infused with a powerful sense of humor.

Tales in a Minor Key

Literature & Fiction

Freund, Peter

Short Stories & Anthologies

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

The Fine Underwear of Consciousness

The novel is about the Cambridge-educated heir of a Pittsburgh steel fortune, who, during the Cold War, turns traitor to his country and causes the death of some honorable and well-intentioned people. The main story is about how this man, short of any solid moral principles, deals with his disgrace, while the waves of shame that wash up on his family’s stormy shores devastate the lives of its other moneyed members. The suspense arises from the psychologically clever and morally compelling revenge of the son of one of the men who lost his life because of the heir’s treason.

Genre Fiction

Austin Macauley Publishing

Carefully researched, The Ecology of the Automobile is a classic that examines the central role that auto production and consumption have played in the 20th Century. More than seventeen million people have been killed on roads since the automobile first appeared. (1993) An incalculable number have been seriously hurt. In the future, half the world is likely to be run over in a terminal squabble for oil. For today we are possessed by a mindless monster which threatens the planet itself. Considering the widespread impact of the auto on many contemporary societies, it is surprising how little attention its social and political dimensions receive - even from ecologically oriented thinkers. This, despite the fact that vehicular traffic is viewed as a major problem. In this original book, authors Freund and Martin examine the central role that auto production and consumption have played in the twentieth century: as a technological system with major impacts on public policy, land use, cultural patterns, social relations, community, natural resources, environmental quality and options for spatial mobility. The overuse and misuse that has caused auto saturation and the costs of auto-centred transport are identified. Individualist and consumerist ideologies that tend to obscure the problems of auto hegemony, including environmental and public health effects, are vigorously questioned. "For policymakers and others interested in a critical appraisal of auto dependence."--Earthwatch "An excellent read for those interested in the environmental impacts and social role of the automobile. Accessible and carefully researched. We need more books like this."--Earthkeeper Table of Contents Preface Introduction: the Parameters of Auto-Centred Transport Systems Part One: Auto Centred Transport as a Social Problem 1. The Consumption Intensity of Auto-Centred Transport 2. The Ecological nand Health Costs of Auto-Centred Transport 3. The Social Inequalities of Auto-Centred Transport 4, The Globalization of Auto Hegemony Part 2: Deconstructing Auto Hegemony 5. The Ideology of Automobility 6. The Phenomenology of Automobility 7. Auto Space Part 3: Politics and Alternatives 8. The Politics of Transport Policy 9. Modifying Auto-Centred Transport 10. Social Change Bibliography Name Index Subject Index Peter Freund holds a Ph.D. from the New School of Social Research, New York, and teaches at Montclair State, New Jersey. He is co-author of Health, Illness and the Social Body and author of the Civilized Body. George Martin holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and also teaches at Montclair State. He is co-author of The Welfare Industry and Social Welfare in Society, and author of Social Policy in the Welfare State. 1993: 213 pages, Preface, Introduction, Bibliography, Name Index, Subject Index.

Ecology Of The Automobile

Business & Money

MARTIN, GEORGE

Economics

Black Rose Books

Theoretical physicist Peter Freund launches into a series of entertaining and instructive fictions, which for their impact seek not just the emotional down-swing of human relations, but also their manifestation as realities of a deeper nature. In these stories, loves, hates and fate demand our attention as they unfold against the background of the twentieth century's turbulent history and against both the stated and the hidden goals of western civilization. Some of the stories are funny, some are tragic, but the vivid sense of humor which pervades all of them, moves them along in a highly entertaining manner.

West of West End

Spuyten Duyvil

Laura und das Geheimnis von Aventerra. Roman.

Ehrenwirth

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Laura y el secreto de Aventerra

Children's Books

Umbriel

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Books by Freund, Peter