The Remembering

January 24, 2011
Covering the history of the cold war on a small scale, singer-songwriter Cash concludes his trilogy (after 2005's The Meq and 2006's Time Dancers) of immortal near-humans who look 12 years old and possess unusual powers. In 1945, 76-year-old Meq Zianno "Z" Zezen dodges U.S. and Soviet covert agencies as he hunts for the legendary Sixth Stone, which will point the way to the place of gathering where the destiny of the Meq will be revealed. The grief of immortals as their adoptive "families" age and die gives an intimate sense of loss even as larger events (the Nagasaki atomic bombing, the Hungarian revolution, the Kennedy assassination) sweep past. Much more sketchily drawn—or omitted altogether—are the social convulsions of the period, like civil rights, sexual liberation, and the peace movement. Cash's Southern rock group, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, makes a cameo that will delight fans of his music.

March 1, 2011
Cashs third novel of the Meq, a people who reach the age of 12 and do not age further, picks up the adventures of protagonist Zianno Zezen in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Unfortunately, he is in the hands of Fleur-du-Mal, a Meq who has turned murderously against his own kind. For millennia the surviving Meq have awaited the Remembering, an event which by their tradition will teach them their lost origins. But they have few clues as to when and where it will be. Zianno may be the only one who can read the riddles. And Fleur-du-Mal, in his madness, has decided the riddle doesnt need answering. The Remembering continues the pattern of the first two books in the series: a small group of people wandering through the centuries, close friends with those ordinary people they can trust but fleeing a major, or, indeed, any, role in world events. The response to the previous books shows that some readers enjoy this country-ballad approach; others do not. But anyone who liked the previous ones will want to read this one to see how it all comes out.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)