The Excommunicated

book description: Follow the intertwining lives of three people caught up in the intrigue and complex machinations of the main political groups of pre-Communist China in this important work by Ahmad Kamal. His story is of Mark Lansing, American newspaper man in Shanghai, his colleague, White Russian, Vianor, and Valya the latter, young and beautiful sister. Believing he is atoning for the seduction of his father's youthful second wife, Mark refutes the love of he has for Valya. By mischance he becomes involved in a Communist plot to devalue the country's currency. Murders are committed in order to obtain the information he holds, and eventually his two friends are taken prisoner and held in the Soviet Embassy. In searching for them, Mark realizes that his life has been one long act of penance for an adolescent sin, and that his true love for Valya provides absolution. author bio: Ahmad Kamal was born on a Colorado Indian reservation in 1914 of Turco-Tatar parents who were forced into exile by the Tsar for participation in the 1905 Revolution. Kamal's genetic makeup imprinted all his endeavors be they as deep sea diver, combat pilot, horseman, warrior, and as exponent of national self-determination. He commanded the Basmachi Rebellion in Turkistan in the 1920's and 1930's, supported the independence of Indonesia and Algeria, and was commanding General of the Muslim liberation forces of the Union of Burma into the 1980's. Though he devoted his entire life to the independence of his fatherland from the Russian and Chinese yokes, he died a month short of the collapse of the USSR. Japan's press, Asahi Shimbun marked his exsistence stating: "Ahmad Kamal lived like a Samurai and died like a Samurai."