“Edges,” a story of a young girl’s sexual awakening in 1963 Palestine/Israel, has gone into a third printing. This novel was edited and published by the late Grace Paley for her own imprint at Glad Day Books. Author Leora Skolkin-Smith has written a special Afterword in commemoration to Grace Paley included in this new edition.

New York City, NY (PRWEB) November 9, 2007 - “Edges,” a story of a young girl’s sexual awakening in 1963 Palestine/Israel, has gone into a third printing. This novel was edited and published by the late Grace Paley for her own imprint at Glad Day Books. Author Leora Skolkin-Smith has written a special Afterword in commemoration to Grace Paley included in this new edition.

“Edges” is a dark and penetrating look at pre-1967 Israel and Palestine through the eyes of a 14-year-old Liana Bialik. After her American father’s suicide, Liana’s Jerusalem-born mother decides to take Liana and her sister back to her homeland, where her family had lived for four generations. Once they get to Israel Liana, who feels overwhelmed and suffocated by her mother, begins to detach herself from her. She embarks on a mission of self-discovery to learn why her mother does not speak about her father and why he took his own life. Edges is well-written, powerful in both imagery and subject matter…”
–Jewish Book World, Spring 2006
Vol. 24, Number 1

“Where, and how and to whom do we really belong? Skolkin’s brilliant debut novel is a hypnotic meditation on the ever-changing boundaries of love and need. A coming of age story of the bond between a young American and her powerful mother, etched in a wartime Mideast as shifting and dangerous and mysterious as the Israeli desert.”
–Caroline Leavitt, Columnist, Reviewer, Boston Globe, People Magazine, Author of Girls In Trouble

“With Edges, Leora Skolkin-Smith earns her place among the most gifted of contemporary American authors. The novel is a reminder that works of fiction can offer the depth, color, texture, passion of a fine painting and a great symphony. This is more than a coming-of-age story; it is a powerful and beautifully wrought account of passion and hope…for a girl and for a country.”
–Victoria Zackheim, Author, “The Boneweaver” Editor, Anthology “The Other Woman”, “For Keeps”

“In Edges Leora Smith skillfully tells the story of a girl of fourteen in the wake of her father’s suicide, brought abruptly by her distraught mother from a comfortable suburban Westchester to the harsh terrain of a young State of Israel. The girl is caught in the maelstrom of political claims between Israel and a West Bank, still part of the Kingdom of Jordan. The turmoil both of the girl and her mother is graphically detailed as they struggle to define themselves in the light of a haunted past and present. The poetry of the girl’s sexual awakening ripples through many pages, softening the fierce realities of the conflict between Arab and Jew. The pages evoke as well the memories of a shared land, and the mother’s childhood growing up in an old Jerusalem before physical barriers separated the city, the religious, cultural, divide between Arab and Jew easier to bridge. The author’s vivid sense of landscape, her gift for identifying with both mother and daughter, Arab and Jew, gives the novel a unique sense of balance and brings the reader, regardless of political conviction into sympathy with this portrait of a vanished Jerusalem.”
–Mark Mirsky, Author, Editor, Fiction

“Edges is an elegantly written, quite moving novel that has a lot to say about love, identity, history and the meaning of nationality. The book is worth reading alone for its superb language, but it is gripping and unforgettable as well in its story telling and evocation of place and emotions. It is a wonderful novel by an author with a quite accomplished voice and style, one well deserving a wide and receptive audience.
–Oscar Hijuelos, author of the Pulitzer-prize winning novel, “The Mambo King Sings Songs Of Love”

“Edges is an elegant and moving novel. Leora Skolkin-Smith has that rare gift of the writer who can convey the sensibility — the essence of a place and its people — with precision and clarity. A provocative debut.”
–Katharine Weber, book critic, author of Triangle

“Edges” is a novel told with restraint and poetic precision…memorable (for the) the sense of place that Ms. Skolkin-Smith has achieved — the sunny and scary Jerusalem and countryside — and the hope, love, hate and fatalism of the groups, Palestinian and Israeli, living amongst and apart from each other…”
– Robert Whitcomb, “The Providence Journal”

“A feverish, sensual, remarkable book.”
–Meredith Sue Willis

About the Book:
The novel “Edges” is set in a pre-1967 Israel, during the Cold War. Characters are drawn from Israel’s long-forgotten past, members of the 1940’s Haganah and Jewish underground who find themselves displaced amidst the chaotic and complex tensions of an Israel just beginning to modernize and expand.
“Edges” was nominated for the 2006 PEN/Faulkner Award and The PEN/Ernest Hemingway Award by Grace Paley.

Featured on Connie Martinson’s TALKBOOKS

Burgess Productions’ new series titled, “ODYSSEY: Driving Around the World” premieres Nov 13th on OLN Canada. Experience the true journey of life on the global road with a team of 7 young professionals who dropped everything for the adventure of a lifetime… Tuesday at 9:00pm EST. Episode 1, “The Launch”, kicks off the 13-part character-based adventure series.

Toronto, Canada (PRWEB) November 9, 2007 — Burgess Productions’ new series titled, “ODYSSEY: Driving Around the World” premieres Nov 13th on OLN Canada. Experience the true journey of life on the global road with a team of 7 young professionals who dropped everything for the adventure of a lifetime… Tuesday at 9:00pm EST. Episode 1, “The Launch”, kicks off the 13-part character-based adventure series.

Equipped with 3 specialized Land Rovers, 7 adventure-hungry team members depart from California on year-long, 41,000-mile expedition through tropical jungles, scorching deserts, and snow covered peaks. Watch tensions run high in Panama when the team is stuck on the side of the road. Spend New Years Eve in Guayaquil, Ecuador where they explode effigies with the locals, and see what happens when the team runs out of gas in the Atacama Desert (Chile). They are the first foreigners to cross Myanmar (Burma) in over 50 years. But driving the world is not always smooth sailing. They get detained in India, deported from China and sent back into Pakistan. In Episode 11 they meet personally with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, where he wishes the team good luck on their journey. Venturing to the far corners of the globe, through 26 different countries, the team members find their minds and spirits pushed to the limits.

“When we got to East India, we were under armed guard due to the separatist activity there. At one point, we had 23 guards with machine guns and three armoured vehicles with top-mounted guns with us.” - Adam Burgess Producer/Director

See images, journals and route details about their adventure on the homepage.

Produced & Directed by Adam Burgess
Guest Appearances include travel writer Rolf Potts, actor Michael J. Fox, and director of The Titanic James Cameron.
Narrated by UK’s “GAZ” of Chiltern FM radio

Watch Odyssey: Driving Around the World on , OLN Canada, The Extreme Sports Channel UK (Sky 419 Virgin 527), National Geographic Adventure Channel, Drive TV Russia and soon on LifeOne UK(Sky 197)

(ARA) - Are the days of the Hollywood blockbuster numbered? According to a nationwide Spout survey, yes.

The recent survey, fresh on the heels of this summer’s blockbuster roll-out, shows that 65 percent of Americans are looking to see more independent films like Little Miss Sunshine this year, with only 21 percent saying that they are satisfied with the list of sequels and remakes slated to appear in cineplex’s across the country. And it appears the blockbuster critics may be taking a hit this year too, with 86 percent of movie goers relying on friends, family or alternative review sites for their movie recommendations.

In contrast to a clear choice for more independent films, the survey illustrates little consensus on what will be the best and worst sequel out this summer. While Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End scored as the probable best sequel with 26 percent, consumers were mostly divided on the second and third place winners. And while Evan Almighty and Rush Hour 3 ranked highest as the probable worst sequels, 19 and 16 percent respectively, consumers cast their thumbs down votes for some current blockbusters including Spider Man 3, Shrek the Third and Oceans Thirteen.

“With people apparently dissatisfied with the current Hollywood choices, it is clearly time for them to drive the industry. And distribution like Four Eyed Monsters on YouTube is just the beginning of this,“ says Rick DeVos, CEO and co-founder of Spout. “To complement this consumer driven industry, sites like Spout.com are adding a human connection to the film experience by creating a trusted online community that helps audiences find their films and helps filmmakers connect with their audiences.”

So where do film lovers go from here? Indie buzz and online distribution of independent films like YouTube’s recent first ever feature of a full length film, Four Eyed Monsters, is making it easier for the average consumer to access independent movies. And the ability to get this content at home is just what the consumer wants with 68 percent of those surveyed saying they prefer to take in a film on the couch and not at the cineplex.

Through film festivals, filmmaker podcasts, and active online dialogue, Spout has remained committed to growing the online film community that consumers are craving. Using real people — experts or mavens — is helping people sort through the thousands of films they could choose whether independent and emerging like Four Eyed Monsters or those blockbusters familiar to everyone.

So put in that microwave popcorn and settle in to your couch because films and reviews are coming at you in a whole new way.

For more details visit www.spout.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent