Henry Carter Hull

Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990's. When a crew of foreign workers are massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay, come what may.

Every night while the city sleeps, Ahmad, a former rock star in his native Pakistan, drags his heavy cart along the streets of New York. Every morning, he sells coffee and donuts to a city he cannot call his own. One day the pattern of this harsh existence is broken by a glimmer of hope for a better life.

During a time of rigid moral code in China, a sixteen year old girl living in a small riverside town discovers she is pregnant. The community is stunned, her family loses face and she and her boyfriend are expelled from their school. In the aftermath, her boyfriend leaves her and she is forced to put her child up for adoption. Ten years later, she is working as a singer in a local song and dance troupe. Her only friend is a young boy who protects...