Publisher's Synopsis
GOING BACK A Novel of War & Peace Based on a True Story Paul Smith GOING BACK is a novel inspired by a true story of love, courage and determination set in a land at peace, Australia; and a land at war... Cambodia. It is the story of people made into refugees by war: the orphans, the old, the young and those who have lost everything and the effect that deadly landmines often have on them. It is the story of the few from America and Australia who stand up to help and love and befriend and help them. But it is mostly the amazing true story of one man who rises out of the depth of despair and through a stroke of good fortune sets off on an odyssey into a living hell and by his inventiveness and sense of humour many lives are saved and changed. Unlike other stories set in Vietnam and Cambodia that tell of war from the soldiers point of view, GOING BACK tells the tale of an ordinary man and people who act extraordinarily in the worst kinds of situations. It is a story from the recent past that could have been ripped from the headlines of today and probably tomorrow. It is an important story, a sad, funny, weird, fantastic, awful, heroic story of war and love and peace and friendship that had to be told. 173 pages. COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ'S 'DIVAN'."It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator into Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. "Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz." Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books). Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies and a dozen screenplays. New Humanity Books amazon.com/author/smithpa
