Bøger af Deni Ellis Bechard

"Kabul, ten years after 9/11. Dismembered by decades of war and jerry-rigged by foreign aid, the city is flooded by journalists, relief workers, and messianic idealists living cheek by jowl in sterile compounds. They throw parties, sell their stories before they happen, trying to save others and redeem themselves ... When a car explodes in a crowded city street, journalist Michiko Oketani is shocked to discover that its passengers were acquaintances--a tawdry love triangle--from expat circles ... Drawn to the secret fabrications of these strangers, and increasingly convinced the events that led to the fatal explosion weren't random, Michiko follows a paper trail that leads beyond Kabul to Louisiana, Maine, Quebec, and Dubai"--

"Béchard's poetic gifts give voice to the outsiders of society, and make them glow with humanity and love." -ELIZABETH MCKENZIE

A collection of essays that are at once personal and political, covering a variety of topics, ranging from the author's tumultuous relationship with his criminal father and the ways writing can help us transform our own understanding to long-form journalistic dispatches from around the globe.

When acclaimed author Deni Béchard first learned of the last living bonobos—matriarchal great apes that are, alongside the chimpanzee, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom—he was completely astonished. How could the world possibly accept the extinction of this majestic species?Béchard discovered one relatively small NGO, the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), which has done more to save bonobos than many far larger organizations. Based on the author’s extensive travels in the Congo and Rwanda, this book explores BCI''s success, offering a powerful, truly postcolonial model of conservation. In contrast to other traditional conservation groups Béchard finds, BCI works closely with Congolese communities, addressing the underlying problems of poverty and unemployment, which lead to the hunting of bonobos. By creating jobs and building schools, they gradually change the conditions that lead to the eradication of the bonobos.This struggle is far from easy. Devastated by the worst military conflict since World War II, the Congo and its forests continue to be destroyed by aggressive logging and mining. Béchard''s fascinating and moving account—filled with portraits of the extraordinary individuals and communities who make it all happen offers a rich example of how international conservation must be reinvented before it''s too late.

From the celebrated author of the "ferociously intelligent and intensely gripping" (Phil Klay) Into the Sun comes a subversive, daring, and at times satirical novel exploring privilege, humanitarianism, white supremacy, and the absurdity of American exceptionalism.

Bonobos have captured the public imagination in recent years, due not least to their famously active sex lives. Less well known is the fact that these great apes dont kill their own kind, and that they share nearly 99% of our DNA. Their approach to building peaceful coalitions and sharing resources has much to teach us, particularly at a time when our violent ways have pushed them to the brink of extinction. Animated by a desire to understand bonobos and learn how to save them, acclaimed author Deni Ellis Bchard traveled into the Congo.Of Bonobos and Men is the account of this journey. Along the way, we see how partnerships between Congolese and Westerners, with few resources but a common purpose and respect for indigenous knowledge, have resulted in the protection of vast swaths of the rainforest. And we discover how small solutionsfound through openness, humility, and the principle that poverty does not equal ignoranceare often most effective in tackling our biggest challenges. Combining elements of travelogue, journalism, and natural history, this incomparably rich book takes the reader not only deep into the Congo, but also into our past and future, revealing new ways to save the environment and ourselves.

An astonishing novel of epic ambition, Vandal Lovewinner of the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize for best first book in 2007follows generations of a unique French-Canadian family across North America and through the twentieth century.A family cursea genetic trick resulting from centuries of hardshipcauses the Herv children to be born either giants or runts. Book One follows the giants line, exploring Jude Hervs career as a boxer in Georgia and Louisiana in the 1960s, his escape from that brutal life alone with his baby daughter Isa, and her eventual decision to enter into a strange, chaste marriage with a much older man. Book Two traces a different kind of life entirely, as the runts of the family discover that their power lies in a kind of unifying love. Franois seeks the identity of his missing father for years, while his own son, Harvey, flees from modern society into spiritual quests. But none of the Hervs can abandon their longing for a place where they might find others like themselves.In assured and mystically powerful prose, Deni Y. Bchard tells a wide-ranging, spellbinding story of a family trying to create an identity in an unwelcoming landscape. Imbued throughout with a deep sensitivity to the physical world, Vandal Love is a breathtaking literary debut about the power of love to create and destroyin our lives, and in our history.