Marina Cantacuzino is an award-winning journalist who in 2003, in response to the imminent invasion of Iraq, embarked on a personal project collecting stories from people who had lived through violence, tragedy or injustice and sought forgiveness rather than revenge. In 2004, she founded The Forgiveness Project (www.theforgivenessproject.com), a charitable organisation that uses real personal narratives to explore how ideas around forgiveness, reconciliation and conflict resolution can be used to impact positively on people's lives. In 2012, Marina spoke at the UN General Assembly about the work of The Forgiveness Project and, in 2015, she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion.
Introduction - 'As Mysterious as Love'. 1. Eva Kor - Poland. 2. Ray Minniecon - Australia. 3. Anna - England. 4. Bud Welch - USA. 5. John Carter - England. 6. Ginn Fourie and Letlapa Mphahlele - South Africa. 7. Bassa, Aramin - Palestine. 8. Madeleine Black - England. 9. Sammy Rangel - USA. 10. Anne Marie Hagan - Canada. 11. Camilla Carr and Jon James - England. 12. Joe Berry and Pat Magee - Northern Ireland. 13. Magdalene Makola - Scotland. 14. Samantha Lawler - USA. 15. Martin Snodden - Northern Ireland. 16. Katy Hutchinson and Ryan Aldridge - Canada. 17. Gill Hicks - England. 18. TJ Leyden - USA. 19. Geoff Thompson - England. 20. Grace Idowu - England. 21. Jude Whyte - Northern Ireland.22. Wilma Derksen - Canada. 23. Satta Joe - Sierra Leone. 24. Salimata Badgi-Knight - Senegal. 25. Robi Damelin - Israel. 26. Assaad Emile Chaftari - Lebanon.27. Linda Biehl and Easy Nofemela - South Africa. 28. Khaled al-Berry - Egypt. 29. Kelly Connor - Australia. 30. Arno Michaelis - USA. 31. Idan Barir - Israel. 32. Marian Partington - England. 33. Kemal Pervanic - Bosnia. 34. Jean Paul Samputu - Rwanda. 35. Cathy Harrington - USA. 36. Hanneke Coates - England. 37. Mary Johnson and Oshea Israel - USA. 38. Shad Ali - England. 39. Riham Musa - Palestine.
The bulk of this impressive, original book, which deserves to be hugely influential, is a set of 'stories' that the author has written on behalf of people who have suffered some kind of traumatic harm at the hands of another. They are written in the first person and with such skill that the subtleties of personality and context shine through. The author is not promoting any theory of forgiveness because she doesn't have one. She believes that it takes myriad forms and is only known through specific and actual examples. It is, as she puts it, 'as mysteriousas love'... those who speak for religion have not yet opened their minds to what she calls the 'up-downbackwards-forwards-inside-outside-on-off' quality of real forgiveness. This book is the articulate and imperative invitation to do precisely that.
