Binka Le Breton

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The Greatest Gift

Binka's newest book, The Greatest Gift, is about the life and death of Sister Dorothy Stang who was assasinated in Anapú, Pará, in February 2005 whilst working to protect the rights of family farmers threatened by illegal loggers. It is published by Doubleday of New York in February 2008, to commemorate the third aniversay of the assassination. During her US tour in March this year, Binka was the guest of WAMU's Diane Rehm show which is broadcast nationally and internationally through National Public Radio (you can hear the podcast from this link) and also appeared in New York on the Joey Reynolds Show.

you can preview it through the Doubleday site: http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385522182

It has also been published as an audio book, and you can get this from the publisher, here or from Amazon.com, here.

The pre-release review by Publishers' Weekly says:

The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang
Binka Le Breton. Doubleday, $21.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-385-52218-2
"Very few religious believers are called upon to give their lives for their faith, but those individuals are often remarkably inspiring. Contemporary martyr Sister Dorothy Stang (1940-2005) was no exception. She lived a rich and full life and laid down that life for her friends. Her story is captured beautifully by British journalist Le Breton, author of Voices of the Amazon. Eighteen years after entering a convent for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Dorothy was granted her desire to serve the poor as a missionary in Brazil. Her somewhat naïve imagination about missionary life was quickly transformed by the harsh realities of the dire poverty she witnessed. During the almost 40 years she served in Brazil, Sr. Dorothy fell in love with the people and the country, and courageously aided in the struggle of poor farmers for land rights against logging and development companies. The story is heartbreaking and Le Breton's prose is gripping throughout, as she weaves in several personal narratives from Dorothy's family and close friends. These lend a gentle warmth to an account that is at times harrowing and cruel. This story deserves to be read."

Publications

Voices from the Amazon, 1993, Kumarian Press (www.kpbooks.com), Bloomfield, CT, USA, tells the story of the Amazon forest as seen through the eyes of the forest people themselves; the Indians, the rubber tappers, the loggers, the ranchers, the miners, and the river people. Read this book and learn about the complex issues surrounding the development and conservation of the forest, without getting bitten by mosquitoes and soaked by Amazon rain!

A Land to Die For, 1997, Clarity Press, Atlanta GA, USA, is a true story of a brave man murdered for his beliefs. In Brazil's fierce land wars, Padre Josimo stood up for the dispossessed in the remote regions of the Amazon forest, and paid for it with his life. This is the book to tell you about a land where there is no law except the law of the gun. The Portuguese version of this book, Todos Sabiam, was published by Loyola, São Paulo, Brazil, in May 2000 and is in its second edition.

(Photo left: Launch of Todos Sabiam in the National Congress in Brasília)

Rainforest, 1997, Longmans, London, introduces children of rainforest countries to their forest heritage.

Trapped: Modern Day Slavery in the Brazilian Amazon, 2003, Kumarian Press, Bloomfield, CT, USA, (with a forward by Archbishop Desmond Tutu) is an account of modern day slave labor in the Amazon. This book was given a Judges Award at the Harry Chapin Media Awards in 2004, organised by the World Hunger Year Organisation. The awards are given for outstanding journalism works on hunger and poverty related issues. It was published in 2002 in Portuguese as Vidas Roubadas, 2002, Edições Loyola, São Paulo.

An English edition was launched in London in May 2003 (see press release) and an Italian version (Vite Rubate), with a forward by Luis Inácio "Lula" da Silva, President of the Republic of Brazil, published by EMI (www.emi.it), was launched in Bologna in June. The French version (La Piège) came out in October 2003.

Click on the links above to buy your own copy of Binka's book, or click on the Amazon logo below to search for any others you may like. Any books that you purchase when clicking through from this link will earn Iracambi a percentage referal fee - - so you will already be helping the rainforest!