Tom Joyce – författare

For more than two millennia, African blacksmiths have transformed one of Earth's most basic natural resources into objects of life-changing utility, empowerment, prestige, spiritual potency, and astonishing artistry—shaping African cultures in the most fundamental ways. Striking Iron combines interdisciplinary scholarship with vivid illustrations to offer the most comprehensive treatment to date of the blacksmith's art in sub-Saharan Africa. Interspersed throughout are photographs of more than 250 diverse works from over 100 ethnic groups—including tools, blades, currencies, wood sculptures studded with iron, musical instruments, and accoutrements—with field photographs documenting blacksmiths at work and objects in use. Seventeen contributors write from the disciplinary perspectives of art history, art, anthropology, archaeology, history, and astronomy, examining how the blacksmiths' virtuosity can harness powers of the natural and spiritual worlds, effect change and ensure protection, assist with life's challenges and transitions, and enhance the efficacies of sacred acts.Exhibition dates: Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, November 19, 2019, to March 29, 2020

This is the third novel in a series following Vienna Police inspector Karl Marbach. This story takes place in the late summer of 1947. With encouragement from US Army Counterintelligence, Marbach is investigating Die Spinne, an escape route out of Germany and Austria for Nazi war criminals. Marbach and CIC major Millican learn about a new escape route called Odessa, a better-financed and more ambitious escape route, and they set out to obtain information about the location of the Odessa relay stations. They also hope to capture travelers on Odessa, including Adolf Eichmann, the architect of what became a mass deportation of Jews to extermination camps. Marbach enlists six men to go with him into the Tyrolian part of Austria to see if they can get the Odessa papersand hopefully also capture Adolf Eichmann. The seven-man team is a collection of men from different countries, including France, Austria, and Poland. At a point where the Odessa papers and Eichmann appear to be within grasp, a large force of Odessa men get into position on the mountain just below Marbachs team, and the only way to avoid getting killed is to climb all the way up to the top of the Dolomites and then down into Italy. A solid bond is forged among the men, who struggle and take risks for each other during the Dolomite climb. During the journey, the men learn a lot about each otherand themselves.