New Memoirs Hit Shelves

Timothy J. Hillegonds' title, "And You Will Call It Fate," alludes to a concept popularized by psychologist Carl Jung, who suggested that "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." Hillegonds' previous memoir, "The Distance Between," also delved into personal reckoning, exploring themes of addiction, rage, and the path to redemption. Salima Hashmi is the eldest daughter of renowned Urdu poet and leftist intellectual Faiz Ahmed Faiz and his British-born wife, Alys Faiz. Her family's life was profoundly impacted by the Partition of India in 1947, forcing their migration to Lahore. Hashmi, a celebrated painter and art educator, was only four years old during the partition and witnessed the communal violence firsthand. Her father, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, was a prominent and controversial figure who was imprisoned in 1951 on charges of sedition and later went into self-exile. These experiences of political persecution and displacement deeply influenced Hashmi's work as both an artist and a human rights activist. Robert Newman first gained fame in the early 1990s as part of the comedy duo Newman and Baddiel, who were the first comedians to sell out the 12,000-seat Wembley Arena. He later shifted his focus to solo stand-up with more political and philosophical themes and has authored several novels, including "Dependence Day" and "The Fountain at the Centre of the World." His new novel, "Intelligence," is set in Oxford in 1938 and follows a group of young philosophers whose theoretical debates about right and wrong are tested by the outbreak of war. The story was partly inspired by conversations with the late philosopher Mary Midgley, who sparked Newman's interest in the world of wartime philosophy at Oxford.