In this volume, the first book-length work to address effective family communication during times of crisis, leading researchers provide in-depth discussions of communication theory vis-a-vis specific scientific analysis of families in crisis. Three general types of crises are examined: relational crises (infidelity, infertility, identity shifts, parental deployment, death of a child); health crises (mothers with breast cancer, children with disabilities, pediatric cancer, geriatric health crises); and economic crises (job loss, divorce, homelessness, post-hurricane survival). Each chapter ends with practical advice for families on how to communicate effectively during crisis. Given its presentation of diverse theories, research methodologies, and crises, this volume can serve as a useful textbook for graduate courses in communication and family studies. In addition, the accessible writing style and engaging topics make it an ideal supplemental text for upper division undergraduate classes and a useful resource for practitioners who assist families in crisis.

In this volume, the first book-length work to address effective family communication during times of crisis, leading researchers provide in-depth discussions of communication theory vis-a-vis specific scientific analysis of families in crisis. Three general types of crises are examined: relational crises (infidelity, infertility, identity shifts, parental deployment, death of a child); health crises (mothers with breast cancer, children with disabilities, pediatric cancer, geriatric health crises); and economic crises (job loss, divorce, homelessness, post-hurricane survival). Each chapter ends with practical advice for families on how to communicate effectively during crisis. Given its presentation of diverse theories, research methodologies, and crises, this volume can serve as a useful textbook for graduate courses in communication and family studies. In addition, the accessible writing style and engaging topics make it an ideal supplemental text for upper division undergraduate classes and a useful resource for practitioners who assist families in crisis.

In 1995, Signal Transduction Protocols, edited by David A. Kendall and Stephen J. Hill, was published in the Methods in Molecular Biology series. This second edition represents an update to that previous work with an emp- sis on new methodologies that have developed in the last few years. The goal, then and now, is to provide procedures written by experts with first-hand ex- rience in a detail that goes far beyond what is generally encountered in the "methods" section of most journals and thus actually permits a particular p- cedure to be replicated. In addition, we have had as a secondary goal the id- tification of protocols for the assay of general classes of signal transduction components that, ideally, can be adapted to the assay of any member of that class. The ability to do this has resulted in large part from the use of affini- based assays, the ease with which specific proteins can be specifically tagged, and an explosion in the availability of highly specific antibodies from comm- cial sources, especially antibodies raised against signaling proteins of human origin. The number of available approaches is, fortunately for those working in signaling research, far too great to fit within the confines of this volume, so hard choices as to what to include had to be made.

Young Nour is a North African desert tribesman. It is 1909, and as the First World War looms Nour's tribe - the Blue Men - are forced from their lands by French colonial invaders. Spurred on by thirst, hunger, suffering, they seek guidance from a great spiritual leader. The holy man sends them even further from home, on an epic journey northward, in the hope of finding a land in which they can again be free. Decades later, an orphaned descendant of the Blue Men - a girl called Lalla - is living in a shantytown on the coast of Morocco. Lalla has inherited both the pride and the resilience of her tribe - and she will need them, as she makes a bid to escape her forced marriage to a wealthy older man. She flees to Marseilles, where she experiences both the hardships of immigrant life - as a hotel maid - and the material prosperity of those who succeed - when she becomes a successful model. And yet Lalla does not betray the legacy of her ancestors. In these two narratives set in counterpoint, Nobel Prize-winning novelist J. M. G. Le Clezio tells - powerfully and movingly - the story of the 'last free men' and of Europe's colonial legacy - a story of war and exile and of the endurance of the human spirit.

***J. M. G. Le Clezio is the Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Fiction*** On the isle of Mauritius at the turn of the century the young Alexis L'Etang enjoys an idyllic existence with his parents and beloved sister - sampling the pleasures of privilege, exploring the onstellations and tropical flora, and dreaming of treasure buried long ago by the Unknown Corsair. But with his father's death, Alexis must leave his childhood paradise and enter the harsh world of privation and shame. Years later, Alexis has become obsessed with the idea of finding the Corsair's treasure; and through it, the lost magic and opulence of his youth. He abandons job and family, setting off on a quest that will take him from the remote tropical islands to the hell of the First World War, and from a love affair with the mysterious Ouma to a momentous confrontation with the search that has consumed his life. By turns harsh and lyrical, pointed and nostalgic, The Prospector is a 'parable of the human condition' (Le Monde) by one of the most significant literary figures in Europe today.

Reflecting distinct and important stages in the career of the preeminent Algerian writer Mohammed Dib, ""At the Cafe" and "The Talisman"" brings together two collections that embroider on themes relating to the Algerian War for Independence (1954-1962). "At the Cafe, " published in 1955, is mostly realistic in style and illustrates particularly well Dib's uncanny talent for storytelling. "The Talisman, " published eleven years later, reflects Dib's growing penchant for relating his perception of the magical or mystical qualities underlying everyday reality.

When he wrote "At the Cafe, " Dib felt it was his duty to witness or testify on behalf of the downtrodden of Algeria under French colonial rule. Three stories in this collection--"Little Cousin," "A Fine Wedding," and "The Long Wait"--poignantly describe the rampant poverty, hunger, sickness, and despair that prevailed under French rule. In others, such as the titular story and "Forbidden Lands," Dib gives a voice to those who had been silenced but who were slowly learning to make themselves heard. On the eve of the war for independence, Dib felt obligated--as does the protagonist, Djeha, in "The Companion"--to take a stand on affirming one's role within the community and take action.

In "The Talisman, " Dib no longer feels the need to testify. Although colonialism and the brutality of war are still central threads, his treatment of them in this collection is more scathingly critical. Dib's style also shifts from the naturalism dominant in his earlier writing, showing a marked interest in the fantastic or magical. The under-lying themes in this collection take up, among other things, an obsession with the experience of death, a fascination with madness, the decrypting of symbols, the quest for a primordial language, and the possibilities of spiritual transcendence.

Set largely in locations near the French Riviera, these eleven short stories depict the harsh realities of life for the less-privileged inhabitants of this very privileged region. Distinguished French writer J. M. G. Le Clezio lends his voice to the dispossessed and explores his familiar themes of alienation, immigration, poverty, violence, indifference, the loss of beauty, and the betrayal of innocence.

In one story an adolescent girl encounters the violence of a gang of masked bikers in a hostile and desolate housing project. In others a man stands by helplessly as a place of great beauty and deep childhood memory is slowly consumed and destroyed by a quickly developing city, an illegal immigrant desperate for work finds himself the prisoner of a ring trafficking in human beings, and two girls risk everything by running away from home and their dead-end factory jobs in search of a more meaningful life. At once tragic and evocative, these engrossing and beautifully crafted stories touch upon the loss of human values in a rapidly changing world.

From the WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 'A work of bewitching beauty and humanity' Chinua Achebe In 1948, a young J. M. G. Le Clezio left behind a still-devastated Europe with his mother and brother to join his father, a military doctor in Nigeria, from whom he had been separated by the war. In his characteristically intimate, poetic voice, the Nobel Prize-winning author relates both the child's dazzled discovery of freedom in the African savannah and the torment of recalling his fractured relationship with a rigid, authoritarian father. Now available to UK readers in English for the first time, The African is a poignant memoir of a lost childhood and a tribute to a father whom Le Clezio never really knew. His legacy is the passionate anti-colonialism that the author has carried through his life.

Set largely in locations near the French Riviera, these eleven short stories depict the harsh realities of life for the less-privileged inhabitants of this very privileged region. Distinguished French writer J. M. G. Le Clezio lends his voice to the dispossessed and explores his familiar themes of alienation, immigration, poverty, violence, indifference, the loss of beauty, and the betrayal of innocence.

In one story an adolescent girl encounters the violence of a gang of masked bikers in a hostile and desolate housing project. In others a man stands by helplessly as a place of great beauty and deep childhood memory is slowly consumed and destroyed by a quickly developing city, an illegal immigrant desperate for work finds himself the prisoner of a ring trafficking in human beings, and two girls risk everything by running away from home and their dead-end factory jobs in search of a more meaningful life. At once tragic and evocative, these engrossing and beautifully crafted stories touch upon the loss of human values in a rapidly changing world.

A cyclone inexorably sweeps Eliette into her past in this novel about the wayward violence of love and nature in Guadeloupe. In "Macadam Dreams" the celebrated Creole writer Gisele Pineau cunningly unveils the two cataclysms that have devastated Eliette's life: first, the cyclone of 1928, when she was only eight years old, and now, Hurricane Hugo, whose destruction shatters the elaborate defenses the old woman has built around the sorrows and madness of her life in the small, accursed town of Savane Mulet. As Hugo unleashes its fury, a final blow frees Eliette's repressed memories of madness, isolation, and loss, and of the grievous failure of a prophecy that promised her a child. A story of self-discovery, "Macadam Dreams" speaks eloquently of the violence and poverty endured by women of this island nation--violence every bit as devastating, and seemingly inescapable, as the perpetually returning cyclone. Viewed by many as a canonical author in the Creole movement in Francophone literature, Pineau has created an extraordinary work that is recognized as a masterpiece of French-Caribbean literature.