From two short stories and fragments of others comprising basically an outline by the author, grows a masterpiece--after 14-months, a most lucid novel, perhaps the best account of a cross-cultural form of intolerance, in historical-fiction in a long time. Based on actual events, "Stay Down, Old Abram, " the author paints two streets, one white, one black--in this tragic game where moods and friction bring out the roots of deeply idealistic rejection and suppressed tendencies, all embedded in the narrative.

One might even conclude, this story is not all that much different than what took place in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, outside of Baghdad recently, although in a thinner angle: yet in both cases we see undisciplined soldiers working in sensitive spots. The time and place is West Germany, mid-l970's.

By Rosa Penaloza

Translator, Writer

"I had read some of Dennis Siluk's books and I liked them very much, the stories and topics touched in each one. I could say that reading them they carry you inside the story and you begin to dream and dream as if you were part of the story."

Nancy De Valencia

English Teacher

Some things have been left out of this book concerning the impressions of the times, in this unlikely story, that took place in San Francisco; -- the times were more of an observation to me, now sketches of a life, --and I felt at the time as if I was looking in some big window of a store in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, trying to wipe a circle in the dead of winter to see the toys. That is how I felt as a Midwesterner in San Francisco, like a toy in the window, --in this new era of freedom, sweeping the country, and it did, that is, it all started right there, right in San Francisco, the year, l968-69; --most names are fictional, some are not.

In this collection of seven stories, there are winners and takers, and they all deal with: --DOD, Death on Demand. All are suspenseful in one way or another. The first being, "The Rape of Angelina..." Here you see revenge, as death waits. In the second story, "The Seventh Born Son, " you witness hate at its worse. It demands death to its taker. In the third story, "The Dead Vault, " you witness righteousness, and power playing a most interesting game, again death demands its rights. In the forth story, "The Senator from Lima, " you walk into a nest of gangsters, all the takers, who make the winners, but there is a price, and again death is on the menu. In the following next three stories, ..". Tides of Winter, " and "The Old Man of Chickamauga" along with, "The Camel Market, " death lingers close by, if not directly, indirectly.