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This collection of short stories encompasses 20 years of work by Howard Fast, including some of his best-known and most treasured tales. Not merely fantasy or science fiction, these "Zen stories" explore the world’s mysterious and unanswerable questions, big and small, and the results are at once bizarre, humorous, chilling, and poignant. An American general shoots down what appears to be an angel during a Vietnam War battle, a celebrated author becomes a hunted man, and a mouse is granted human thought and emotion by a group of alien beings.

Howard Fast has placed the entire action of this highly charged novel in the space of one day at the substantial home of a prominent United States senator. This dinner party sounds like a well-ordered and gracious affair, but as events unfold, there are things to be settled - some are political and ethical, some are emotional, and some are questions of life and death. This is a profound and important novel with the dramatic intensity of first-class theater.

Nearly forty years after the publication of his first story, "The Wrath of Purple," in the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, Howard Fast returned to the genre with a set of nine supremely entertaining tales. In this collection, a Vietnam general shoots down what appears to be an angel, a man sells his soul to the devil for a copy of the next day's Wall Street Journal, and a group of alien beings bestow a mouse with human thought and emotion.

The Naked God is Howard Fast's public repudiation of the Communist Party, of which he was a devoted member for thirteen years until reading about the full scope of atrocities committed by the Soviet Union under Stalin. The best-selling author of Spartacus and Citizen Tom Paine, Howard Fast lent his writing talents and celebrity to the communist cause as a steadfast advocate and public figure. However, he felt increasingly ill at ease with the superior manner Party leaders took with rank-and-file members and with rumors of Soviet anti-Semitism.

Detective Masuto reopens an investigation into a murderous film star - with deadly consequences… On the day that Eve Mackenzie murders her husband, Masao Masuto is on a plane to Japan. For years he and his wife, both American-born Japanese, have dreamed of visiting their homeland, and though the trip is a delight, the Zen Buddhist detective cannot help but check the international papers for news of murder on his home turf of Beverly Hills. Part of him regrets missing the sensational Mackenzie killing.

It was everywhere. You couldn’t talk about the revolution without using the word freedom in the same breath. But Gideon Jackson knew that freedom meant something different if your skin was black. Fast’s fictional account of the post Civil War era takes us into the life of Gideon Jackson, a black man, newly freed, and determined to make a difference.

Howard Fast's firsthand account of the infamous 1949 Peekskill riots, including historical documents, photos, and newspaper reports. In 1949, author Howard Fast found himself in the middle of a violent and terrifying anticommunist riot in Peekskill, New York. Fast was the master of ceremonies at a civil rights benefit concert featuring Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, and others. But local newspapers stoked anticommunist anger, and the event was besieged by a mob armed with rocks, clubs, fence posts, and knives.

Rain has spoiled Masao Masuto's vacation. For six days the storm has trapped the Zen Buddhist detective and his family inside their Los Angeles cottage. By the morning of his vacation's final day, he is so stir crazy that the call to come to work is a relief. Detective Masuto knows no better cure for boredom than a puzzling murder.

A follow-up to his 1970 science fiction collection, The General Zapped an Angel, Fast’s book of 13 new science fiction stories is brisk and engrossing. In "The Hoop", a scientist builds a portal to an unknown destination, which the mayor of New York City hijacks to use as a garbage dump until the location’s surprising, and hilarious, revelation. And in "The Egg", set 3,000 years in the future, a research team discovers an egg, something they have never seen before, cryogenically frozen in a nuclear bunker. These 13 stories are bizarre, hilarious, poignant, and sure to entertain.

Bruce Baron was a first rate foreign correspondent during World War II, but his association with the Communist Party plunges him into trouble with the McCarthy witch hunts. His only salvation is the passionate and feisty Molly Maguire but her own political leanings do nothing to help his cause.

A small-town girl flees from the assassin she hired to kill her when the doctor in her small hometown tells Sally Dillman that she has six months to live, the quiet young schoolteacher sells her house and moves to New York City. She comes not to see the sights, not for one last thrill, but to die as quickly as possible. Savings in hand, she pays a mobster $3,000 to put a contract out on her life. She wants to be killed before leukemia saps her strength, and she wants it to be a surprise. Only later does she learn of her terrible mistake.

The Hunter and The Trap presents two thrilling and suspenseful stories by Howard Fast, one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century. In “The Hunter,” celebrated but down-on-his-luck novelist Andrew Bell returns to New York from an African safari only to find himself the prey in someone else’s big game hunt. Bell must seek the help of an old friend in order to escape with his life.

Fifteen-year-old Adam Cooper is anxcious to join the excitement and action of the Revolutionary War. On the morning of April 19, 1775, he stands beside his Massachusetts farmer father to face the redcoats marching out of Boston. But suddenly, his father falls on the village green, and Adam’s hands are shaking as he shoots at columns of marching men. With realistic drama and riveting suspense, Howard Fast brings the glory and the agony of the colonial battlefield vividly to life.

When the love of his life is accused of murder, a university professor will stop at nothing to prove her innocence. On a late night drive home, Ike Goldman, a retired Columbia University law professor, saves a woman from killing herself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. The woman's name is Elizabeth Hopper, and Ike, a widower, unexpectedly finds himself falling in love. Everything changes when Elizabeth's estranged husband, a rich Wall Street executive she claims abused her, is found murdered, and Elizabeth is the prime suspect.

In 1944, there was still no united Yugoslavia, the Axis controlled most of Europe, and D-Day was only in the planning stages. In the Balkans, Tito was a beacon of hope against the advancing Nazis. He led a force of resistance fighters that bedeviled the occupying German army throughout Slavic regions and empowered people's committees to act as local government in all liberated areas. For observers on the political left, Tito seemed uniquely poised to unite the East and West against fascism - once and for all.

The story of Moses, who grew from orphan to adopted prince to leader of the oppressed people, is worthy of many retellings. In Moses, Fast breathes new life into the legendary story of the infant found among the reeds of the Nile. From Moses’s adoption into the home of Pharaoh Ramses II, to his upbringing in Egypt's royal court, to his controversial support of monotheism and eventual leadership of a nation, Moses is a stunning look at the life of one of world history's most celebrated men.

These nineteen stories follow the paths of men and women, immigrants, minorities, and the poor, suffering from injustice and inequality. Written in the 1940s, Fast's clear-eyed and lively tales examine a world reeling from war and plagued by social unrest. With stories set in New York City, Europe, and India, this collection shares a remarkable global vision. Written during the rising Communist scare, Departure is a defiantly leftist portrait of a complex and ever-changing world.

Returning from a funeral, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Briggs find their Beverly Hills mansion ransacked. As they wait for the police, they discover something unusual: Despite the chaos, nothing appears to be missing - a fact that greatly interests Beverly Hills police detective Masao Masuto. But the Zen detective only has a few minutes to ponder the strange break-in before a murder intervenes. The victim is Ivan Gaycheck, a stamp dealer whom Masuto remembers for his stout frame and unplaceable accent.