-
The Angels of Opi
Price range: $3.99 through $15.99Seven Boys Held Captive for 11 years! When Daniel Ciarletta and his father, Pete, boarded a boat in 1947 bound for Italy, to visit Pete’s ailing father, they could not have known what awaited them. Everything changed for Daniel and the Ciarletta family. Daniel was abducted and taken to Opi, a rural mountain community that had survived for centuries by sheep herding until 1943, when retreating German soldiers seized all the boys and able-bodied young men as work prisoners. Daniel soon became a work prisoner as part of a devious plan by the citizens of Opi-including the local priest who had evidentially lost his “moral compass”- to abduct young foreigners to take the place of the men they had lost. With no idea of where he was or why, and unable to speak Italian, Daniel began working in the fields and plotting his possible escape. Meanwhile, back in America, the once happy and loving Ciarletta family began to slowly disintegrate under the burden of conflict, anger and guilt caused by Daniel’s mysterious disappearance.
-
The Man Who Transformed Africa: The Rebirth of a Continent
Price range: $3.99 through $17.99The novel opens with Vatican intrigue between liberal and conservative Cardinals leading to the unlikely selection of an Indonesian Pope. Seizing the opportunity, the new pope uses Ex-Cathedra (papal infallibility) to declare poverty an immoral human condition. Deciding to lead by example, the pope takes the provocative step of selling the Vatican treasures, to fund a long-term project to build a strong African middle-class society. This project is estimated to take twelve to fifteen years to complete. This novel covers the first two years of the pope’s African project.
Project leaders during the first two-year period understand if Africa is to be successful in building a strong middle-class society a number of events must first take place.
African social order must change; Africans must feel safe in their homes and community.
The African political structure must be restructured to focus on serving the needs of Africans. Africa’s health care system needs a major overhaul.
Africa must have an intra-continental highway, connected to four deep seaports, for the distribution of agricultural products to a global market.
Africa must have dependable electricity that services all homes and businesses.
Africa’s tropical savannas’ land, which contains 63% of the worlds arable farmland, must be restructured to allow for optimal farming while at the same time protecting native wildlife.
The pope’s project, Build Africa Together, will be responsible for implementing these basic goals, which will eventually allow Africans to build a strong African middle-class society.