Books by Carole Eglash-Kosoff
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The Human Spirit — Apartheid’s Unheralded Heroes
A story of human experience telling the stories of the "Mamas"...women, black and white, who worked to provide basic necessities to South Africa's black townships during the worst years of Apartheid. The Human Spirit - Apartheid's Unheralded Heroes is the composite of more than sixty interviews conducted by the author, Carole Eglash-Kosoff, over two years while working in the townships.
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http://thehumanspirit-thebook.com/
When Stars Align
The love that Thaddeus and Amy feel for one another can get them both killed. He is colored...she is white. Born from the rape of an 11-year old slave girl by the white son of the plantation owner, Thaddeus is reared in the main house, loved by his grandfather...hated by Henry, his biological father. Amy and her family have to come to the plantation for protection against approaching Union soldiers. The two young people bond immediately, but in 19th century Louisiana mixed race relationships are both illegal and unacceptable.
Moss Grove, a large Mississippi River cotton plantation has thrived from the use of slave labor while its owners live lives of comfort and privilege. Deepening divisiveness between North and South launches the Civil War. Henry and Thaddeus find themselves in the same battle. Henry is seriously wounded. Only Thaddeus' bravery gets them both back to Moss Grove.
When the war ends Thaddeus, no longer a slave, returns to Moss Grove hoping that he and Amy might have a chance together. Under the protection of Union soldiers, schools are established to educate those who were formerly prohibited from learning to read. Medical clinics are opened and businesses begun. Black legislators are elected and help to pass new laws. Hope flourishes. The love that Thaddeus and Amy feel for one another grows. Perhaps the stars will now finally align for the young lovers.
Henry, now married to Elizabeth, Amy's older sister, is stunned at the birth of his second child...a little girl...born colored. An outspoken bigot, he learns that he has black blood coursing through his veins. He refuses to accept that he isn't entirely white and becomes active in the Klan. His background is revealed during a Klan raid and he is killed.
Amy and Thaddeus realize there is no place they can share their love. They are forced to separate. Years later, Thaddeus returns to Moss Grove to attend Amy's funeral and discovers he and Amy had had a son together.
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Winds of Change
Winds of Change is a sweeping saga of America’s racial history from the Civil War through World War I. The rape of a Negro field slave by the white teenage son of Moss Grove, a Louisiana cotton plantation, produces Thaddeus, a mixed-race boy, and the first grandchild of Jedidiah and Ruby, owners of the plantation. He falls in love with Amy, a white girl. Amy and Thaddeus struggle to survive in a country driven by race-stained violence, political upheaval, horrors of war, and the tragedy of being in love in a world which does not respect or allow interracial relationships…the discovery of which could get them both killed.
Their separate and joint children produce a mélange that carry us through a time of great change in America.
Following the Civil War four million black, mostly uneducated, slaves were given their freedom and as ill-prepared to deal with it as the southern whites were to deal with a new social order. As one century ended and another began we saw the introduction of electric lights, telephones, automobiles, airplanes and movies. We saw the rise of jazz, the Spanish-American war, the San Francisco earthquake and World War I. All this impacted Whites and African-Americans differently, just as it impacted men and women differently.
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By One Vote
One vote…the decision of a single individual, can change the direction of the country. It can move an entire nation further into the dark or it can move it in the direction of curing inequities that evolved through decades of history.
We live in a period of economic and political unrest and we believe it to be worse than at any time in our history…but it may not be! America’s two hundred plus years of existence has been one of turmoil, dissension, and war. It has been a time of alternating economic growth and stagnation. Each decade has found stalwarts and dissenters convinced that they, alone, have the best solution for the country’s ills.
A surprising number of events that altered the country’s direction resulted from the vote of a single individual either in support of a change or opposed to it. Names such as James Bayard, Edmund Ross, and Joseph Bradley are unknown, but during their lifetimes, they altered the fabric or our nation as significantly as Americans whose names are more famous. This book, By One Vote, tells these stories. The events are factual; the dramatizations surrounding them are the studied imagination of the author.
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Sex, Drugs, & Fashion
SEX, DRUGS, & FASHION is a highly entertaining novel of the Apparel industry during the frenzied days of the 1970’s & 1980’s. To some it will be just an enjoyable story. To others it will be a trip down memory lane.
Charlie Barron, growing up in New York’s 7th Avenue Fashion District, moves to Los Angeles and its embryonic environment. He finds it difficult to keep his pants zipped as he builds first one company, then another, always at odds with his business partners. His first partner, Pablo, is from El Salvador, where garments can be made less expensively. Everything goes well until that country’s revolution closes the factory. Meanwhile Pablo’s marriage crumbles as his gay life style is revealed. Charlie’s second partner, Neil Pastore, is an Italian Jew who owns a fabric company.
Charlie marries, divorces, marries a second and a third time. We meet Jennifer, Ruby, and Lorena. We meet Sharon, Windy, and Adrienne.
The novel also deals with the underbelly of the industry…the New York mob, Vegas gamblers, and cocaine dealers. We see kickbacks and scams. You’ll meet Will Duval who has competed with Charlie for decades, always preferring shortcuts to success. Their competition often leads to violence.
Most of the characters in the book are composites of people the author knew and the significant events are based on the authors more than thirty years in the industry.
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The Double V
Early in 1942, a young Negro tries to enlist in the Army. He’s beaten and told that this is a ‘white man’s war’. It’s his first experience with racism. Frustrated, he writes a letter to the Pittsburgh-Courier, one of the largest black newspapers in the country. “There shouldn’t be two Americas, one white and one black, why should Negroes die for a country that treats them like 2d Class citizens?”
Publication Early 2021
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Over the Hill and Still Climbing
Oh, I wish I were in my 30’s again! My entire adult life would be ahead of me, shining brightly, albeit unknown. But I’m not. I’m in my 80’s, over the hill, and not just in my I-just-turned-80 confession, but well into my late ‘80’s, where even car rental companies shun you. I mean, I haven’t had sex since George W. Bush was President and really good sex took me back to Bill Clinton. I mean, who can forget the days of Monica Lewinski and her blue dress. Memories can be lovely, but they’re poor substitutes for steamy bodies.
I really can’t complain. My life has been a roller coaster ride worthy of Magic Mountain. I’ve loved and been loved. I’ve traveled the world. I’ve seen great wealth and tragic poverty. I’ve seen glaciers melt and technologies soar. I’ve listened to magnificent music and I’ve seen great art. I have friends whom I adore, although in recent years I’ve lost far too many. On the scales of time, I’ve had an amazing run….and I’m still running, slower, but still trying to kick-ass.
My name is Samantha Reed! You can call me ‘Sam’ and this isn’t an autobiography. That would require too much self-indulgence. No! It’s a mixture of me and not me…a cannibalized life of fiction and reality.
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Guff
“Readers should plan to be thoroughly entertained, educated, and surprised when diving into this novel. Eglash-Kosoff is an extraordinary writer, partly because of her masterful descriptions. She explores humanity’s ugly history of racism and bigotry. And, just when this novel is wrapping up comes a left hook finale that few will see coming. The best historical fiction is entertaining, leaves readers something to ponder, and makes one smarter. This novel checks all the boxes!” — U.S. REVIEW OF BOOKS
Hollywood 1940, a pre-pubescent town, adorned with orange groves, pretty girls hoping to make it big in the movies, and gangsters like Bugsy Siegel, finding fertile ground. The Great Depression may be over but war is on the horizon as a young man, Guff, with a peculiar talent for remembering numbers and patterns arrives with his friend, Nick, aka Picnic, a light-fingered pickpocket. The Grauman’s Chinese, the movie studios, his girlfriend, Julie, and the warm sun backdrop the events of the plot. Drafted, Guff’s prowess takes him to encryption, German secrets, General George Patton, and the atom bomb. The decades tumultuous events provide spice to Guff’s adventures. It is all true except for those parts that aren’t.
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Guff - The Journey Continues
Guff Rankin works for the CIA as an analyst. Through his lens, readers learn history regarding Cuban/American relations, Israel/ U.S. relations, and more, circa the 1950s. The story is fast-paced! Spies, murders, lovers, and clandestine meetings provide all the action and intrigue any reader wants. Yet the book offers so much more than these.
Rankin is a near-savant whose gift is seeing patterns....mathematical and otherwise. But Rankin is a regular guy in most ways, making him relatable and lovable. He has a delightful family and rich friendships, and readers grow attached quickly to them through excellent character development.
Writing good historical fiction takes much time and talent. Authors have to do their homework, and Eglash-Kosoff obviously understands this. She expertly captures the flavor of the times: “Eisenhower would serve out his second term but the country was ready to pass the torch of leadership to a younger generation,” Rankin describes after the election of 1952.
This book is a sequel to Guff, picking up where the author left readers in the original story. However, this book stands alone just fine, and anyone can start with the present tale and join Rankin’s world. To read about him is to make a new friend. When readers feel a tale ends too quickly, it is a strong indication of a good book. In this case, one can only hope for a third volume.
Cover design and illustration by Barbara Kosoff barbarakosoff.com
— U.S. REVIEW OF BOOKS
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Guff - A Life Well Lived
“A Life Well Lived”
To laugh often and much: To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.
– RALPH WALDO EMERSON
This novel is the third in the Guff series. While the three books together follow Guff’s life from the 1940s-1970s, and from Hollywood to Germany to Cuba, each book is rich and entertaining on its own. Guff can easily become the reader’s friend for life.
Guff Rankin is warm, kind, smart, and loyal—the kind of person that everyone wants to be, or wants to know. His life parallels the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights battles, and the Nixon White House era. Guff has a near-savant knack for patterns, making him a valuable employee as a code breaker, card wizard, and CIA agent. He is even asked to find patterns in racism that might ease the country’s racial tensions.
Meanwhile, Guff’s daughter, El, has matured and finds herself in the midst of a dangerous kidnapping plot and her own path in life. A random shooting takes the life of Guff’s wife. His reaction and hopes for redemption of the young man who shot her moves the story in unusual ways and illuminates an empathy too rare in our society.
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The House on Hayworth (short story)
It was 1942. The Second World War had begun and the men were off to war. The women and children came together. Anne and her two sisters, Lil and Rose, as well as their parents Max and Dora.
We had moved into a large house we could have purchased for $5,500, if we’d only had $500 for a down payment…but we didn’t.
It was a time of growing up and family.
Annie — an exaggerated biography
The life of Anne nee Fleishman, Eglash, Fidler et al. Married six times, she lived a full life. This novella was written to chronicle her story for her grandchildren.