Then We Were One

Shocked by his brother’s death from psychological trauma sustained in the Vietnam War, Fred A. Reed sets out on a journey of personal discovery. By way of Greece, the Balkans, and the mystical Anatolian highlands, in pursuit of iconoclasts in Syria and Lebanon, he comes under the spell of Islam. In its embrace, he finds renewed brotherhood and liberation.

International journalist and award-winning literary translator Fred A. Reed is a specialist on Middle East politics and religion. He has reported for La Presse, CBC Radio-Canada, Montreal Gazette, and Le Devoir. He is a three time winner of the Governor General’s Award for Translation.

AUTHOR

Fred A. Reed

A three-time winner of the Governor General’s Award for translation, and shortlisted for his 2009 translation of Thierry Hentsch’s Le temps aboli (Empire of Desire), Fred A. Reed has translated works by many of Quebec’s leading authors, several in collaboration with novelist David Homel, as well as works by Nikos Kazantzakis and other modern Greek writers. His most recent work, with David Homel, includes Philippe Arsenault’s Zora and Martine Desjardins’ The Green Chamber. Baraka Books will publish his translation, from Modern Greek, of Yannis Tsirbas’ Vic City Express in September. His latest book is Then We Were One: Fragments of Two Lives, an autobiographical essay, published in French by Fides Éditeur.

Reviews

“Through a fragmented yet largely chronologically arranged narrative, intertwined with reminiscences of the life of his brother with whom Reed was obviously very close, readers are treated to a story of massive geographical and ideological shifts – from white, middle-class Catholic Pasadena – through tumultuous involvement in dodging the American draft and adherence to secular Marxism while living in Greece and Canada, and visiting Iran, Turkey and Syria – finally to Montreal and conversion to Islam influenced by the Nur movement founded by the Turkish sage Bediüzzaman Said Nursi. If a central thread is to be distinguished in this narrative, it is that of rebellious iconoclasm: the confrontation and smashing of various idols, culminating in surrender to ‘the centrality of mercy that Islam ascribes again and again to God’ (286). … the book succeeds in its stated goal of telling the tale of the survivor.” – Franz Volker Greifenhagen, Equinox Online: Religious Studies and Theology