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These two stories explore love and beauty in the context of fear and threats. Jamali Kamali is a book-length poem about two men who lived in 16th century India. Little about them is known but they are buried together in a small tomb in Delhi. For hundreds of years, the story that these men were lovers has been passed down through the generations. Jamali Kamali is a fictional account of their love, longing, separation, and death. ZundelState, a novella in verse, takes place a thousand years in the future in a repressive land where history is banned, and dreaming has vanished. Joe, a lover of history, is rebellious and secretive. Marianna is a model worker for the State where she works in the HistoryShit Apparatchik Division. They fall in love against all odds. These two tales of outsiders, one from the distant past and the other from the far-off future, echo and reflect upon each other in surprising ways.
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Reviews
"Chase's message is clear and chilling: the fragility and preciousness of freedom, the finiteness of life, the importance of love and taking responsibility-a warning, especially in the ever-threatening times we are living in."
The Berkshire Edge
"Karen Chase finds the immutable human nature of her characters in these disparate worlds. And she has faith in their humanity, and that a good human story will always feel fresh and meaningful."
Berkshire Jewish Voice
"Fact and fiction meet in Karen Chase's "Two Tales: Jamali Kamali and ZundelState," one a modern love story inspired by the past; the other a futuristic tale that yearns to understand our present."
The Berkshire Eagle
"At the core of these stories is the endless possibility of love, language, and the power of the human heart. Karen Chase is a troubadour of wind, sound, space, time, memory, and desire."
Matthew Lippman, author of We Are All Sleeping With Our Sneakers On