Eighteen-year-old Joshua Cushing wakes up in a psych ward, not knowing how he got there. Worse, he has only one eye. And no one in his family will tell him what happened to his girlfriend, Sophie. The one thing he knows for sure is that something happened, leaving him with a self and a life he barely recognizes. Once a popular long-distance runner, Josh is now flabby, frustrated, and furious about returning to his New Jersey high scho ol to repeat his senior year. Forced to attend meetings with other ""underage weirdos,"" he sinks into his loneliness. But when Josh meets Elizabeth Rinaldi, things begin to change. The only other new student in his class, she has a scar on her forehead, a Southern accent, and an attitude. Sharing a status as outcasts and an aptitude for snark, Josh and Elizabeth help each other escape their pasts. The Book of Joshua weaves an unforgettable story from family secrets, friendship, faith, love, and redemption. It brings readers deeply into the lives of those who suffer from mental illness, as well as the friends and family affected by it.

"Visiting Hours," a novel-in-stories, explores the lives of people not normally met on the page---AIDS patients and those who care for them. Set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and written with large and frequent dollops of humor, the book is a profound meditation on faith and love in the face of illness and poverty.

"This highly informative work digs into the intricate history of Sudanese politics. Lesch brings a welcome clarity to Sudan's tangle of political, ethnic, and religious problems by concentrating on the country's central dilemma: the inability of its leaders to negotiate a common definition of nationhood." Foreign Affairs

..". the first correct account of what took place... after independence." Robert O. Collins

The Sudan is torn by ethnic and religious conflict, centered on the struggle over the definition of the Sudanese nation-state. Is the Sudan primarily Arab or African by culture and ethnicity? Should the political system privilege Islamic legal codes or accord equal citizenship to persons of all faiths? Ann Mosely Lesch provides a comprehensive and even-handed analysis of the unresolved struggle for a stable political system and a unified national identity."

These essays describe with unusual immediacy the unfolding obstacles to peace between Egypt and Israel, with a central focus on the Palestine issue. In one especially powerful chapter, the writings of an Arab woman from Nazareth eloquently testify to the difficulties of life for the Palestinians under Israeli rule. Other chapters treat Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza, the impact of Israeli politics on the peace issue, and the Palestinians' response to the occupation.