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There is much in this book that will interest most women and mothers: marriage, sexual abuse,immigration, childbirth,alienation from family life, religion.
The author has woven favourite poems into chapters; each poem relevant and poignant.
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More information about the author with selected book reviews
Read Excerpts from ‘Whatever Happened To Ishtar?’
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My Book ‘Whatever Happened to Ishtar? ; A Passionate Quest To Find Answers For Generations of Defeated Mothers’ is made up of two books:
In Book I, I trace my Lebanese family history back through the mists of time to various places in the Middle East, then to Bcharre, from where my paternal grandparents Eva and Jacob Fahkrey (Coory) emigrate to Melbourne in 1897 and from there on to Dunedin, New Zealand. Kahlil Gibran came from the same village as my grandparents and was related to them through marriage.
In Book II, I trace my mother’s Italian family back to such places as southern Italy, Sicily, Pistoia, Lucca, Pisa, Florence, and northern Italy’s border with Switzerland. I document my own mother’s descent in to severe bipolar disorder and the way it impacted on the lives of her children.
More than anything else, Roman Catholic dogma binds together the Lebanese and Italian branches of my family tree. However, I believe that their adherence to this system of beliefs is one of the fundamental reasons as to why so many of the women became defeated mothers.
The two separate branches of my family tree intertwine in New Zealand when my mother, Doreen Frandi, an ex-nun, becomes pregnant to Phillip George Coory, son of Eva and Jacob, at the closing stages of the Second World War. Phillip is already married with a young son. What happens from then on begins an almost unbelievable chapter of events in Dunedin and has had ramifications for following generations of mothers.
Most of all, this book proves two things: Our lives can be pre-ordained by the tragedies of our ancestors’ lives, and a child’s spirit can survive the cruelest of beginnings, to take on the world.
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‘Ishtar?’ with tea. Photo courtesy Twitter @vivchook
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Second Edition copies of ‘WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ISHTAR?’ can be ordered via online booksellers NOW: Amazon, The Nile NZ, Booktopia, etc
Hi there, am I able to buy a copy of this book directly through you, or do I have to buy it through an online store? I am your father’s sister Pearl’s grand-daughter, btw, and I was lucky enough to have met your lovely son Anthony and his gorgeous family in person recently, after having corresponded with him via email for about a year. Kind regards.
I am glad you have met up with my son Anthonly and his family, Debbie. I am very proud of him. You can buy my book online from a NZ distributor like Nile or a university book shop. Amazon have it as well but I am not sure how long it would take for delivery. Enter the book title and the ISBN bar code 1-921642-95-5 on google and you should be able to find other bookstores who can get you a copy. Kind regards, Anne