Minnie O'Brien reflects back on her long life in rural Ireland and her struggle to hand her farm over to her youngest son.

Two students, Laila and Abdallah met in High School in the early 1950s. Upon graduation in 1953, Laila went to London to further her education and Abdallah opted to join the labor market as a teacher of English in a night school. After two years of working, Abdallah wanted to have a better future. He applied to and was accepted by the American University of Beirut (AUB) as a full time student. While walking on campus, Abdallah spotted Laila's sister Najwa who also was a student at the university. He asked her about Laila. Najwa said, Laila is still in London and she asked about you. Abdallah told her to please say hello to her for me. Six months later, Abdallah asked Najwa about Laila. She said well, Laila is back home in Beirut now. Abdallah said, hopefully she and I will cross paths again. A week later, on June 15, 1958, Abdallah saw a pretty young lady sitting on a bench under the Banyan tree. He approached her reluctantly and asked if she were Laila. She responded by asking if he is Abdallah. Both rekindled their relationship after five years of separation. They dated on and off for two years and decided to get engaged on October 20, 1960. They got married on December 15, 1962 after which they traveled to the United Stated as Abdallah was accepted to the graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley.

The true story of a beloved banyan tree and a community that fought to save it in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

“This is a powerful and exciting work. Mosse has produced a work of scholarship that is lively and readable without any loss of subtlety and sophistication. It is a ground-breaking study, of critical importance to the ways we understand religious nationalism and the anthropology of postcolonial experience.”—Susan Bayly, author of Asian Voices in a Postcolonial Age

"A grandfather reminisces about playing in his favorite banyan tree one day while picking up his grandson from school. Enamored by his grandfather's stories about the banyan tree, the grandson asks his grandfather to take him to the banyan tree. There they learn that you can never be too old to climb trees, fly to outer space, see pirate ships, search for sea monsters and dragons, and share the joy and magic of imagination."--Page 4 of cover.

This informative, fun-to-read guide takes the reader on a tour of the fifty trees of Banyan Drive in Hilo, Hawaii. Each tree is accompanied by a story of the amazing person who planted it. Princesses, movie stars, famous athletes, explorers, presidents and more - they lived in an era when Hilo, and the world, was on the brink of monumental change. The book includes a map and short history of the Waiakea Peninsula, including Liliu`okalani Gardens, Coconut Island (Moku`ola), Reed's Bay, the Hilo Breakwater and Kanakea, the Ice Pond.

An epic spanning three generations, Leaves of the Banyan Tree tells the story of a family and community in Western Samoa, exploring on a grand scale such universal themes as greed, corruption, colonialism, exploitation, and revenge. Winner of the 1980 New Zealand Wattie Book of the Year Award, it is considered a classic work of Pacific literature.