A masterpiece of contemporary Latin American fiction, Rosario Castellanos' Book of Lamentations tells of an uprising of Mayan Indians in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Based on episodes from actual Mayan uprisings in 1712 and 1868, the novel merges a wealth of historical information and local detail into a vision of the nature of oppression that is universal in scope.

Thirty years before the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas brought this little-known corner of Mexico to the world's notice, Mexican author Rosario Castellanos created a similar rebellion in her 1962 novel The Book of Lamentations. Castellanos has framed her story, which is set in the 1930s, around an actual 1860s uprising of Maya Indians against the Chiapan white ruling class. History and fiction meld seamlessly, mainly because conditions in the Chiapas Castellanos knew as a child hadn't changed much in the intervening 70 years; as late as the 1920s, impoverished Indians still served as mules, carrying white landowners strapped to their backs.

The book's title is apt; Castellanos casts an unflinching eye on the effects of oppression, ignorance, and misery. The central characters, motivated variously by desperation, superstition, or ambition, may not be admirable, but they are all too human. In the end, a rebellion culminating in the grisly crucifixion of a child is doomed to failure. Although The Book of Lamentations is not a pleasant book, in an age where history seems increasingly to be repeating itself in Asia, in the Balkans, in Mexico, and elsewhere, it is a deeply instructive one.

The books of Jeremiah and Lamentations cannot be separated from the political conditions of ancient Judah. Beginning with the righteous king Josiah, who ushered in a time of glorious but brief religious reform, Jeremiah reflects the close tie between spiritual and political prosperity or disaster, between the actions and heart of Judah and her kings and their fortunes as a nation. While few of us today have any firsthand understanding of what it means to live in a theocracy, the central theme of Jeremiah and Lamentations remains clear and still holds true: God first, politics second. The words, prayers, and poems of 'the weeping prophet' serve to realign us with God's priorities, turning us from evil and encouraging us to pursue God and his ways. With emotion and spiritual depth, these prophetic writings beckon us toward a spiritual integrity that can still affect the course of individuals and nations today. Most Bible commentaries take us on a one-way trip from our world to the world of the Bible. But they leave us there, assuming that we can somehow make the return journey on our own. They focus on the original meaning of the passage but don't discuss its contemporary application. The information they offer is valuable--but the job is only half done! The NIV Application Commentary Series helps bring both halves of the interpretive task together. This unique, award-winning series shows readers how to bring an ancient message into our postmodern context. It explains not only what the Bible meant but also how it speaks powerfully today.

Tohko will be graduating soon. Although that thought makes him sad, when he spends New Year's with Kotobuki, Konoha feels the distance between them closing ever so slightly. However, when he hears that Kotobuki has been suddenly hospitalized and goes to visit her, he is reunited with a girl he never for a moment forgot! A girl who smiles exactly like she used to. However, Konoha's bonds with those around him begin to creak loudly, and she is at the center of it all. What exactly is the truth? What is it that she wishes for? What are the girl's true feelings, as the Book Girl imagines them? The long-awaited fifth volume!

The New International Biblical Commentary (NIBC) offers the best of contemporary scholarship in a format useful both for general readers and serious students.

Based on the widely used New International Version translation, the NIBC presents careful section-by-section exposition with key terms and phrases highlighted and all Hebrew transliterated. A separate section of notes at the close of each chapter provides additional textual and technical comments. Each commentary also includes a selected bibliography as well as Scripture and subject indexes.

The stories and poems in Truth and Lamentation, written during and after the Holocaust, reveal the human faces hidden behind the all-too-familiar statistics of the event. International in scope, this volume brings together 20 short stories and 90 poems commenting on the essentially incomprehensible nature of the Holocaust. Milton Teichman and Sharon Leder have drawn from a remarkably varied range of writers, representing nine languages and including both Jews and Gentiles. The contributors include the well known and the as yet unknown. A critical introduction places the selections within two broad categories of literary response to the Holocaust - truthtelling and lamentation. The first reflects the desire of writers to transmit multiple truths; the second expresses sorrow and loss.

The poetry found in the "Book of Lamentations" is an eloquent expression of one man's, and one nation's, despair. The poet is deep in mourning as a result of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in the sixth century b.c.e. He looks to Israel's own sins to explain the catastrophe, and yet he recites poignant examples of Israel's suffering in wondering aloud if God has abandoned his people altogether. Thus his lament is both a confession and a prayer for hope in spite of the horrible defeat."Lamentations" is traditionally thought to have been written by the prophet Jeremiah; today the question is whether one man wrote it or many. In his Introduction, Delbert Hillers gives the evidence against Jeremiah's authorship and suggests that the poems should be treated as an intelligible unity, most likely written by an eyewitness to the events described."The Book of Lamentations" has been taken up through history both as poetry and as an expression of boundless grief. It has become part of the Jewish and Christian liturgies, as well as a source of comfort far beyond the time in which it was written. This commentary fills in the book's literary and historical background, and we emerge with a fresh respect for the artistry with which it was composed. The poetry itself demands this respect, with a translation here that carries the emotion and heartbreak of the original Hebrew.This new edition by Delbert R. Hillers is a thorough revision of his earlier Anchor Bible commentary, incorporating new literary theories and textual discoveries connected with the very latest Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship.