A one-man freedom convoy

Book review by Daniel Gawthrop posted on The British Columbia Review (formerly the Ormsby Review) on February 25, 2022         man@the_airport: How Social Media Saved My Life. One Syrian’s Story by Hassan Al Kontar New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2021 $23.95 / 9781777010188 Given the staggering human toll of the civil war in Syria since 2011 — half a million dead, more than six and a half million internally displaced, another five and…

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Reading in 2021: A selection

  After a first pandemic year in which I buried myself in novels and non-fiction for much of the time I wasn’t working, I didn’t expect to read more books in 2021. But that’s what happened. What follows is a sampling, with the usual eclectic mix of subject matter. If you’re looking for titles about the world’s biggest health issue, though, you’ve come to the wrong place: I didn’t read a single book about the…

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Double Karma – A Novel

May 28, 2021 It’s a deal! I’m very pleased to announce that Marc Côté and Cormorant Books will be publishing my first novel, Double Karma, in Spring 2023. The publishing deal was posted on Quill & Quire’s website on May 27 with the following notice: “Cormorant Books’ Marc Côté has acquired world, dramatic, and audio rights to Daniel Gawthrop’s Double Karma. The first novel from the five-time nonfiction author is described as the story of…

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Burma as failing state: The road to civil war

  More than two months into the unfolding nightmare of Burma’s latest military dictatorship, a grim new reality has become apparent to the people of this country, also known as Myanmar, and to others around the world who have been following events there with growing concern: the longer the national army (Tatmadaw) keeps killing innocent civilians and otherwise terrorizing the population while the United Nations does nothing, the more likely the country is to descend…

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