A story of love, race, power and consequences that spans generationsThree days after arriving in Zimbabwe, Natalie discovers an abandoned newborn baby on a hill near her uncle’s farm. Years earlier, the hill was home to the Mazowe village where Chief Tafara governed at a time of great unrest. Faced with taxation, abductions and loss of their land at the hands of the white settlers, Tafara joined forces with the neighbouring villages in what becomes the first of many uprisings. A Child Called Happiness is a beautiful and emotive work of historical fiction. This is a story of hope, resilience and reclamation, proving that the choices made by our ancestor’s can echo for many generations to come. What Reviewers and Readers Say:'Collishaw's characters are delicately created and endearingly human', Celeste Hicks'An incredibly timely book about the human upheaval in all its emotional forms,' Rosie Garthwaite‘Steeped in the beautiful smells and sounds of Zimbabwe and evidences Stephan Collishaw’s love of the country... His balanced treatment of an emotive issue will challenge and provoke many readers,’ Phillip Barclay'Deftly weaves together two stories set in different periods of Zimbabwe's history, always taking the reader with him. The vexed issue of land in Zimbabwe and who it belongs to is the common thread. Collishaw creates atmosphere and a sense of place, bringing to life the characters, the history and the politics,' Mary Harper'A gripping yet tender story, played out under a burning African sun, and shot through with thought-provoking authenticity,' Nick Brownlee
A Jewish girl finds refuge with a village outcast during WWII in this “elegantly crafted, beautifully written novel about love, survival and hope” (William Ryan). In a small Eastern European village, fifteen-year-old Yael is on the run from Nazi invaders. The so-called village idiot, Aleksei is a solitary mute who does not want for company. But as the brutal winter advances, he reluctantly takes Yael in. As she begins to win his trust, a delicate relationship develops between them. But beyond Aleksei’s remote homestead, the war rages on, and Yael cannot hide forever. A Jewish partisan group is organizing in the woods to mount a counterattack. Torn between her love and her need to fight, Yael must find her voice as the voices around her are being extinguished.
Antanas is a young Lithuanian conscripted to fight in the Soviet War in Afghanistan where he falls in love with a young Afghani nurse. She opens his eyes to the politics of the war, while making bearable the brutal reality of their situation - until her sudden death sends him spiralling into a breakdown and to a psychiatric hospital back home in Vilnius. Vassily, a war comrade, rescues him and teaches him his trade - crafting amber jewellery - helping Antanas to let go of the past. But Vassily has a guilty secret - eight years later, on his deathbed, he cannot make a full confession, but charges Antanas with retrieving the priceless amber bracelet he smuggled out of Afghanistan during the war. After Antanas reluctantly agrees, he discovers not only that a dangerous rival is also searching for it, but also the terrible price Vassily paid for it. Only then can he truly make peace with the past and with his estranged wife.
For a full hour I sat at my desk and stared up at the two photographs. One by one I smoked a packet of twenty Prima cigarettes.... The earth, I felt, was beginning to shift, and the long dead were stirring. In the closing days of the twentieth century, an elderly writer wanders the streets of Vilnius, Lithuania, possessed by the need to photograph the young mothers of the city. In their faces and the faces of their children he sees the reflection of a secret that haunts him. A secret he has spent years trying to bury. In a decaying back street of the city a woman struggles to raise her family. As her son dreams of a better life she is torn between Vilnius' twilight world of prostitution and her determination of securing hope for her children. She too is haunted by memories that rob her of sleep. In Vilnius the rubble of the Jewish ghetto lies side by side with the fallen statues of communist heroes. Through this tangled debris of past and present the story of the writer's great love and his even greater betrayal begins to coil its way to the surface and demands to be told, in The Last Girl by Stephan Collishaw.
For a full hour I sat at my desk and stared up at the two photographs. One by one I smoked a packet of twenty Prima cigarettes.... The earth, I felt, was beginning to shift, and the long dead were stirring. In the closing days of the twentieth century, an elderly writer wanders the streets of Vilnius, Lithuania, possessed by the need to photograph the young mothers of the city. In their faces and the faces of their children he sees the reflection of a secret that haunts him. A secret he has spent years trying to bury. In a decaying back street of the city a woman struggles to raise her family. As her son dreams of a better life she is torn between Vilnius' twilight world of prostitution and her determination of securing hope for her children. She too is haunted by memories that rob her of sleep. In Vilnius the rubble of the Jewish ghetto lies side by side with the fallen statues of communist heroes. Through this tangled debris of past and present the story of the writer's great love and his even greater betrayal begins to coil its way to the surface and demands to be told, in The Last Girl by Stephan Collishaw.
A Jewish girl finds refuge with a village outcast during WWII in this “elegantly crafted, beautifully written novel about love, survival and hope” (William Ryan). In a small Eastern European village, fifteen-year-old Yael is on the run from Nazi invaders. The so-called village idiot, Aleksei is a solitary mute who does not want for company. But as the brutal winter advances, he reluctantly takes Yael in. As she begins to win his trust, a delicate relationship develops between them. But beyond Aleksei’s remote homestead, the war rages on, and Yael cannot hide forever. A Jewish partisan group is organizing in the woods to mount a counterattack. Torn between her love and her need to fight, Yael must find her voice as the voices around her are being extinguished.
A story of love, race, power and consequences that spans generationsThree days after arriving in Zimbabwe, Natalie discovers an abandoned newborn baby on a hill near her uncle’s farm. Years earlier, the hill was home to the Mazowe village where Chief Tafara governed at a time of great unrest. Faced with taxation, abductions and loss of their land at the hands of the white settlers, Tafara joined forces with the neighbouring villages in what becomes the first of many uprisings. A Child Called Happiness is a beautiful and emotive work of historical fiction. This is a story of hope, resilience and reclamation, proving that the choices made by our ancestor’s can echo for many generations to come. What Reviewers and Readers Say:'Collishaw's characters are delicately created and endearingly human', Celeste Hicks'An incredibly timely book about the human upheaval in all its emotional forms,' Rosie Garthwaite‘Steeped in the beautiful smells and sounds of Zimbabwe and evidences Stephan Collishaw’s love of the country... His balanced treatment of an emotive issue will challenge and provoke many readers,’ Phillip Barclay'Deftly weaves together two stories set in different periods of Zimbabwe's history, always taking the reader with him. The vexed issue of land in Zimbabwe and who it belongs to is the common thread. Collishaw creates atmosphere and a sense of place, bringing to life the characters, the history and the politics,' Mary Harper'A gripping yet tender story, played out under a burning African sun, and shot through with thought-provoking authenticity,' Nick Brownlee
Description: Antanas is a young Lithuanian conscripted to fight in the Soviet War in Afghanistan where he falls in love with a young Afghani nurse. She opens his eyes to the politics of the war, while making bearable the brutal reality of their situation -until her sudden death sends him spiralling into a breakdown and to a psychiatric hospital back home in Vilnius. Vassily, a war comrade, rescues him and teaches him his trade -crafting amber jewellery -helping Antanas to let go of the past.But Vassily has a guilty secret -eight years later, on his deathbed, he cannot make a full confession, but charges Antanas with retrieving the priceless amber bracelet he smuggled out of Afghanistan during the war. After Antanas reluctantly agrees, he discovers not only that a dangerous rival is also searching for it, but also the terrible price Vassily paid for it. Only then can he truly make peace with the past and with his estranged wife.Praise for Amber 'Collishaw's latest evokes Hemingway's war-torn landscapes with spare language and haunting imagery... a sensuous tale of survival... an intensely moving account of this war and the scars it has left.' Good Book Guide'Gripping... A haunting and ultimately uplifting tale of love, friendship and betrayal.' Waterstones Book Quarterly'Collishaw is impressive in his descriptions of war... The struggle of a man to return from such horrors and try to live as a loving husband and father is described by him in heartbreaking detail. This is a compulsive read.' Nottingham Evening Post 'A tumultuous tale of friendship distorted by love, greed and the distorting effects of war... a captivating read.' Yorkshire Post
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.