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- Intriguing plot based on little known historical fact
- That's a good fiction book.
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- Potential arises from a misfire in this authors debut.
- Not what I had expected
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The Cloud Atlas
Liam Callanan
Manufacturer: Delacorte Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Bahamarama
ASIN: 0385336942
Release Date: 2004-02-03 |
Amazon.com
In his gorgeous debut novel, The Cloud Atlas, Liam Callanan merges fact and fantasy in a dual narrative set in Alaska amidst the waning days of World War II. In a hospice care facility Louis Belk is an aged priest providing religious comfort and confession to a dying friend, a Yup'ik shaman named Ronnie. But, as Ronnie reaches the final stages of life, Belk begins a confession of his own.
The narrative turns back to young Belk's career as a bomb disposal specialist during the war. When Belk witnesses a bizarre balloon explosive kill several soldiers at Fort Cronkhite outside of San Francisco, he is summarily shipped to Alaska to join a top secret military unit dedicated to uncovering the mystery of what turn out to be Japanese balloon bombs (Callanan based this story on an actual Japanese program that was largely covered up by the US government during the war). Belk's commanding officer, Captain Gurley--a cross between Conrad's Colonel Kurz and Melville's Ahab--is a disgraced former OSS man with a Princeton pedigree and an artificial leg. The leg is a permanent reminder of his failure to defuse his first balloon bomb, and it fuels an obsession to discover and collect all such bombs in the future. In possession of a captured leather-bound atlas filled with maps and neat Japanese script, Gurley is also convinced that the Japanese are about to launch far more deadly cargo on the balloons, perhaps spies or plague virus. Meanwhile, Belk and Gurley become embroiled in an explosive love triangle with the local fortune teller, Lily, a woman with an uncanny ability to read people's lives but unable to understand her own destructive passions or escape her demons.
In unfolding this complicated story, Callan manages to keep the development of Belk, Lily, and Gurney in an almost perfect balance with the telling of a well-paced and compelling war-time narrative. Callanan enriches the novel with details of 1940s bomb disposal procedures and provides a thorough anatomy of Japanese balloon bombs. He also establishes Alaska--a place seemingly caught between American and Yup'ik culture--as a space for American magical realism, where spirit animals and Catholic mysticism can cohabitate. As a first effort, The Cloud Atlas is all silver lining. --Patrick O'Kelley
Book Description
Set against the magnificent backdrop of Alaska in the waning days of World War II, The Cloud Atlas is an enthralling debut novel, a story of adventure and awakening—and of a young soldier who came to Alaska on an extraordinary, top-secret mission…and found a world that would haunt him forever.
Drifting through the night, whisper-quiet, they were the most sublime manifestations of a desperate enemy: Japanese balloon bombs. Made of rice paper, at once ingenious and deadly, they sailed thousands of miles across the Pacific...and once they started landing, the U.S. scrambled teams to find and defuse them, and then keep them secret from an already anxious public. Eighteen-year-old Louis Belk was one of those men. Dispatched to the Alaskan frontier, young Sergeant Belk was better trained in bomb disposal than in keeping secrets. And the mysteries surrounding his mission only increased when he met his superior officer—a brutal veteran OSS spy hunter who knew all too well what the balloons could do—and Lily, a Yup’ik Eskimo woman who claimed she could see the future.
Louis’s superior ushers him into a world of dark secrets; Lily introduces Louis to an equally disorienting world of spirits—and desire. But the world that finally tests them all is Alaska, whose vastness cloaks mysteries that only become more frightening as they unravel. Chasing after the ghostly floating weapons, Louis embarks upon an adventure that will lead him deep into the tundra. There, on the edge of the endless wilderness, he will make a discovery and a choice that will change the course of his life.
At once a heart-quickening mystery and a unique love story, The Cloud Atlas is also a haunting, lyrical rendering of a little-known chapter in history. Brilliantly imagined, beautifully told, this is storytelling at its very best.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing plot based on little known historical fact.......2007-08-28
Somehow my high school history class on World War II missed the Japanese balloon bombs in the later days of 1944 and early days of 1945; maybe I was distracted by the cutie a couple of rows away. Nonetheless this book (and Mr.Callanan)have rectified that fact. Mr. Callanan spins a fascinating tale of life near the close of WWII involving a Catholic-raised orphan undergoing his coming-of-age, a half Russian-half Yup'ik Eskimo woman doing whatever she needs to to survive and a severly unbalanced Army captain who makes Capt. Ahab look like Walter Cronkite. The story unfolds from the perspective of Louis Belk, the former orphan, now Catholic priest, as he stands a deathbed watch over his "competitor", a Yup'ik shaman, in a series of flashbacks/flash forwards, giving him his confession about the series of events that took place those waning days of WWII. Alaska is a much a character in this book as any of the humans from it's dense cloud of mesquitos that breed in the summer melt puddles to the crystal sharp nights of its winters. A good read, hard to put down.
That's a good fiction book........2007-05-13
I'm not finish readding yet.
I give 4 stars which I have read a half of book.
An amazing novel.......2007-05-11
I read this novel several years ago and have been haunted by it ever since. It is a beautifully lyrical morality play, chronically the maturation and corruption of an 'innocent'. Drawing allusions from Christian, Hindu and native American myths (the balloon man as 'angel', trickster, magicians and healers, redeeming prostitute, etc.), the author has woven a magical tale. One has to look only a bit deeper than the surface story to learn and marvel at this book. Not to be missed...
Potential arises from a misfire in this authors debut........2006-03-22
Cloud Atlast is the story of a WWII Bomb Disposal agent who is sent to Alaska in the wake of Japanese hot air balloon-bombs making their way across the Atlantic at the end of the war. While there he falls in love with a native Alaskan fortune teller and has various underming experiences with his sadistic commanding officer. The story is told in a series of flashbacks that mostly deal with his developing psuedo-feelings for the girl, and his increasingly intense experiences looking for these bombs and dealing with his seargant.
The book is a misfire because it is meant to be a character piece where the different elements, (i.e. the absurdity of war, unexpressed love, beautifull nature etc.) add up to an greater and complete whole. Unfortunately I felt the book fell flat and never reached its potential. The main character was well developed but turned out to be boring, and uninspired. His submissiveness and naitivity got old after awhile as I never felt that he really grew from his experiences. Also his narritive was uneven as his penchant for melodrama resulted in way too many "life changing" experiences which in effect just diluted the important moments towards the end of the book. In addition the atmosphere of the book didn't work for me as I never felt any emotional ties to any of the characters.
There are some scenes where the book really works and is laugh out loud funny. These are mostly Catch 22 meets Apocalypse Now types of encounters and usually involve the mail character and his insane/absurd seargent.
Bottom Line: In the end this book was a let down and frequently boring. I never emotionally connected with the characters and I really can't recommend it.
Not what I had expected.......2006-01-14
I was disapointed by this book,the whole story seemed very intriguing. Imagine what it was like to be a young man, sent to the arctic for bomb disposal.The bombs are secret japanese balloon bombs, made by every japanese citizen and launched to land on the United States. Several of these bombs landed in California, the state of Washington and most in Alaska.
But beyond this, the story is very dull. The main character
Beik, rambles on about a dying friend and about his fears of meeting up with a woman of japanese descent.He takes abuse from his surly superior officer. I could not finish this book because
there was no point to it.
Book Description
The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Volume II: Mesoamerica, gives a comprehensive and authoritative overview of all the important native civilizations of the Mesoamerican area, beginning with archaeological discussions of paleoindian, archaic and preclassic societies and continuing to the present. Fully illustrated and engagingly written, the book is divided into sections that discuss the native cultures of Mesoamerica before and after their first contact with the Europeans. The various chapters balance theoretical points of view as they trace the cultural history and evolutionary development of such groups as the Olmec, the Maya, the Aztec, the Zapotec, and the Tarascan.
Book Description
Alliance and Conflict combines a richly descriptive study of intersocietal relations in early nineteenth-century Northwest Alaska with a bold theoretical treatise on the structure of the world system as it might have been in ancient times. Ernest S. Burch Jr. illuminates one aspect of the traditional lives of the Iñupiaq Eskimos in unparalleled detail and depth. Basing his account on observations made by early Western explorers, interviews with Native historians, and archeological research, Burch describes the social boundaries and geographic borders formerly existing in Northwest Alaska and the various kinds of transactions that took place across them. These ranged from violence of the most brutal sort, at one extreme, to relations of peace and friendship, at the other. Burch argues that the international system he describes approximated in many respects the type of system existing all over the world before the development of agriculture. Based on that assumption, he presents a series of hypotheses about what the world system may have been like when it consisted entirely of hunter-gatherer societies and about how it became more centralized with the evolution of chiefdoms.
Accounts of specific people, places, and events add an immediate, experiential dimension to the work, complementing its theoretical apparatus and sweeping narrative scope. Provocative and comprehensive, Alliance and Conflict is a definitive look at the greater world of Native peoples of Northwest Alaska.
Book Description
The Handbook of North American Indians is a 20-volume encyclopedia summarizing knowledge about all Native peoples north of Mesoamerica, including cultures, languages, history, prehistory, and human biology, intended to serve as a standard reference work for anthropologists, historians, students, and the general reader. Each volume contains heavily illustrated chapters by the main authorities on each topic and concludes with an extensive bibliography and index. Volume 6 covers Indians from interior Alaska to Labrador.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating!.......1999-06-19
As I am a scholar and an expert of Na-Dene groupings, I find this to be one of the most fascinating and remarkable volumes of THE HANDBOOKD OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. The photos and linguistic data are absolutely fascinating and the authentic information -that so captivates every micro-molecule of my attention- is astonishingly elating! I have recently been able to determine -thanks to the many rare and authentic photos of this book- that many of the Northern 'Athapaskan' tribes are not totally 'mongoloid', as I had previoiusly surmised. I have discovered Indian (from 'India') and Turkish strains that are especially, concentrated in northeastern British Columbia and northwestern-Northwest Territory bands. These findings have shed much light on my Na-Dene origin theories, regarding the genetic makeup of the Na-Dene forbears. AWESOME!!!
Average customer rating:
- This is a good book for people who like animals
- This book was excellent!
|
The Secret of the Seal
Deborah Davis
Manufacturer: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Fiction
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ASIN: 0679865667
Release Date: 1994-11-15 |
Book Description
While hunting, a 10-year-old Eskimo boy befriends a seal pup. "When Kyo learns that his uncle is hunting for a seal to take to the zoo, he must use every bit of resourcefulness he can muster to save his vulnerable playmate. Readers are not hit over the head with the theme of animals being best left in the wild. Kyo's transformation from hunter to conservationist is plausible and touching. A welcome addition for younger readers."--School Library Journal.
Customer Reviews:
This is a good book for people who like animals.......1999-02-10
"Soon you will kill Seal not become one," says young Kyo's father, but Kyo had different ideas. Finally the moment Kyo had been waiting for, he was going to hunt his first Seal. Kyo found a seal and was going to kill it when he found how innocent looking he was. As Kyo began inspecting her he realized how sweet and kind she was. Kyo named this friendly creature Tooky. Kyo's Uncle George was coming down to hunt a seal for the Big City Zoo. George goes hunting with Kyo, and Kyo realizes his friend is in danger. Kyo tries to convince George that there is really no seal in Tooky's breathing hole, and leads George away from Tooky's usual breathing hole. They go on a wild goose chase, but don't find any seals. The next morning George went out to Tooky's usual breathing hole, because he had a feeling Kyo was lying. Uncle George finds Tooky, and tranquilizes her. Kyo has to stop his George from taking Tooky to the Big City Zoo, breaking their friendship, and revealing his secret.
I think this was a great book. Towards the end of the book it really grabs your attention because during the book you really fall in love with Tooky. Kyo was a very courageous boy to be able to hold on to his secret.
This book was excellent!.......1999-01-27
This book is about a young Eskimo boy named Kyo, who is going to shoot his first seal, but when the time comes, he looks into the seal's eyes and puts the harpoon down. Kyo becomes very good friends with the seal and decides to name him Tooky. One day, Kyo's uncle comes from the city to capture a seal and bring it back to the city. Every morning Kyo and his uncle go to look for a seal, so Kyo points him the opposite direction of her normal breathing hole, but one morning, his uncle gets up earlier than Kyo and finds the hole. Kyo tries to convince his uncle to let the seal go, but it was no use.
I think this was an extraordinary book! This is definitely Deborah Davis' best book. It leaves the reader in suspense. I highly recommend this book to anybody who likes books that are about relationships between animals and people, and about friends and how far they will go for each other. This book is for all ages. It made me feel like I was actually there through the happy and the sad times.
Average customer rating:
- loved it!
- Water Sky
- Thankful for a warm bed and a blanket
- A pitiful book that does little besides bore
- The story of an Arctic drama
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Water Sky
Jean Craighead George
Manufacturer: HarperTeen
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ASIN: 0064402029 |
Book Description
"Nukik! Lincoln gasped, his skin tingling. Could this be happening! Had he just seen a whale with a white tail? Was it now going to give itself to him, as Vincent had said?
Lincoln still could not believe it. He had had only one thing in mind when he made the long trip from Massachusetts to Barrow, Alaska, and that was to find his Uncle Jack. He thought Vincent Ologak, an Eskimo whaling captain, could tell him where to find him, for Vincent was the man Uncle Jack had planned to see when he went to Alaska to help save the bowhead whale from extinction.
But Vincent Ologak cannot or will not give Lincoln a straight answer. As far as he is concerned, Lincoln is there for a very different purpose from the one he himself imagines: A whale is coming to Lincoln, a whale that will end two years of waiting and suffering for Vincent's people.
Nothing in Lincoln's past experience quite prepares him for the whaling camp at Barrow. Here ice is a living presence and the temperature is so cold that spilled water hits the ground as ice balls. Here for the first time he meets young Eskimos-especially Unpik, with whom he falls deeply in lovewhose strong identification with their Eskimo culture leads Lincoln to question his own identity. But above all else it is Vincent Ologak's vision of him that teaches Lincoln more than he has ever learned anywhere before
.
Jean Craighead George blends masterfully observed nature scenes and a wry story of first love in one of her most appealing and moving novels.
Life in today's New England hasn't prepared Lincoln for the ways of an Alaskan whaling camp. But it's there that he draws strength from an Eskimo captain's vision of him and his connection with Nukik, the whale that gives itself to Lincoln and the people of Barrow. `Beautifully written, with a fine blend of Eskimo ritual and modern science.' 'SLJ.
Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children 1987 (NSTA/CBC)
Children's Books of 1987 (Library of Congress)
1988 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)
Customer Reviews:
loved it!.......2005-12-07
This was one of the best books I have ever read! It was about a boy who takes a trip to alaska, and is at a whaling camp. He experiences many diffrent things. overall a super duper book! I loved it and totally recommend it for anyone who loves stories about the artic!:)
Water Sky.......2004-01-03
(Review by an eleven-year-old fifth-grader, who read this book for a home school assignment)
Water Sky is about a boy named Lincoln who goes to Alaska to find his Uncle Jack, but ends up in a whaling camp. At the whaling camp, he learns what it's like to be an Eskimo whaler. He even comes face to face with a polar bear! Every one says he has a "whale coming to him," so he tries to kill one. The rest of the book shows how he proves them right.
I enjoyed the adventures in this book and I think people who like other cultures should read this book.
Thankful for a warm bed and a blanket.......2002-06-16
Very enjoyable. The plot and the characters were just as compelling as outlined by many of the other reviewers. However, what was most valuable to me was the description of life in the arctic. Books describing something that I know absolutely NOTHING about are very valuable to me. And believe me, before reading this I knew nothing about having to eat the duck's beak from the stew in order to please the host(ess). Descriptions of just how cold it can get--especially at night when the hero was trying to sleep---- were also very moving for me.
A pitiful book that does little besides bore.......2002-06-14
Like many other books by this same author, this book is TERRIBLE. I only read it because I was interested in Alaska and though some of the info in this book was valuable she could have made this a non-fiction sort of info book about Alaska and not have wasted my time. The plot if you could say there is one is not very good. My advice to you: do not read this book!
The story of an Arctic drama.......2001-03-06
Based on her experiences visiting the Arctic and the whale camp where her son works, beloved children's nature writer Jean Craighead George presents a beautiful story for older readers. It tells the story of a young man, Lincoln, who goes to the top of the world and the northernmost place in the U.S., Point Barrow, home of the bowhead whale and the Inupiat Eskimo. Lincoln comes searching for his long-lost Uncle Jack and to find the roots of his Eskimo heritage, but instead faces his destiny when the captain of an Eskimo whaling camp tells him that a whale is coming to him. Uncle Jack came to the Arctic to try to convince the Eskimo not to hunt the threatened bowhead, and Lincoln, when a turn of events causes him to become the whaling captain, is torn between whether to respect Uncle Jack's environmental plea, or to honor the beloved whaling captain by killing the great whale. Though Lincoln slowly comes to feel like a true Eskimo by weaving himself into their culture and customs, he sadly realizes that he can never be one of these magnificent and efficient people. Romance becomes the main thing that causes Lincoln to realize this, and the heroine he becomes attracted to is as strong and beautiful as the main character in Ms. George's other Arctic novel for young adults, JULIE OF THE WOLVES. The ending is poignant and unforgettable, and out of Ms. George's eighty plus environmental stories, WATER SKY is probably the most provocative and thoughtful. Fans of the Julie books and the spectacular picture book, ARCTIC SON, will adore this story that is at the same time icy, thoughtful, inventive, tragic, and altogether a rewarding read.
Average customer rating:
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The Things That Were Said of Them: Shaman Stories and Oral Histories of the Tikigaq People as Told by Asatchaq
Asatchaq
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0520065697 |
Book Description
In this first English-language collection of Tikigaq myths and oral histories, storyteller Asatchaq Jimmie Killigivuk recounts twenty-four tales of legendary and historic shamans.
When poet-anthropologist Tom Lowenstein began recording his stories in 1975, Asatchaq was the oldest Tikigaq resident and the community's most authoritative storyteller. Asatchaq saw his work with Lowenstein as a communal obligation to preserve these stories for members of the new generation who were growing up as modern Americans unaware of Tikigaq history.
From the Tikigaq creation myth to the oral history of a shaman's final renunciation of his practice and Christian baptism, these stories will become essential to the growing canon of native North American literature.
Average customer rating:
- We Found Our Thrill: Berry Magic
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Berry Magic
Betty Huffmon
Manufacturer: Alaska Northwest Books
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ASIN: 0882405764 |
Book Description
Long ago, the only berries on the tundra were hard, tasteless, little crowberries. As Anana watches the ladies complain bitterly while picking berries for the Fall Festival, she decides to use her magic to help. "Atsa-ii-yaa (Berry), Atsa-ii-yaa (Berry), Atsaukina!" (Be a berry!), Anana sings under the full moon turning four dolls into little girls that run and tumble over the tundra creating patches of fat, juicy berries: blueberries, cranberries, salmonberries, and raspberries. The next morning Anana and the ladies fill basket after basket with berries for the Fall Festival. Thanks to Anana, there are plenty of tasty berries for the agutak (Eskimo tee cream) at the festival and forevermore. As she did with THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE (praised by the New York Times Book Review, a San Francisco Chronicle Choice, and a Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Picture Book Award winner), Yup'ik Eskimo elder Betty Huffmon shared this folktale with author/illustrator Teri Sloat, who brings it to life with her delightful illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
We Found Our Thrill: Berry Magic.......2007-03-11
Glowing with warm, earthy colours and generously adorned with animal friends, industry and magical chanting, this simple celebration of creativity and appreciation is pure joy.
Book Description
In 1886, the Ihalmiut people of northern Canada numbered seven thousand; by 1946, when Farley Mowat began his two-year stay in the Arctic, the population had fallen to just forty. With them, he observed for the first time the phenomenon that would inspire him for the rest of his life: the millennia-old migration of the Arctic’s caribou herds. He also endured bleak, interminable winters, suffered agonizing shortages of food, and witnessed the continual, devastating intrusions of outsiders bent on exploitation. Here, in this classic and first book to demonstrate the mammoth literary talent that would produce some of the most memorable books of the next half-century, best-selling author Farley Mowat chronicles his harrowing experiences. People of the Deer is the lyrical ethnography of a beautiful and endangered society. It is a mournful reproach to those who would manipulate and destroy indigenous cultures throughout the world. Most of all, it is a tribute to the last People of the Deer, the diminished Ihalmiuts, whose calamitous encounter with our civilization resulted in their unnecessary demise.
Customer Reviews:
Concept is correct.......2005-08-20
The concept is correct anyway. These people were led to their demise by three factors: the church, commercialization (HBC), and the Canadian government. Mowat claims he spent two years living among these people. This is doubted by some. I've traveled in some of the areas that this book takes place. Not everyone has great things to say about this author. One person I talked to called him a historical novelist. He has other nicknames.
But while it is questionable that all the events described in this book and its' successor (The Desperate People) actually took place, at least he got the main theme correct.
The worst book EVER..........2004-06-07
What ever you do, do not waste your precious life reading this book...
Yes! A life-afirming wonderous book!.......2001-08-04
This book is magic. You will never think about a small band of Indians as statistics again. This book does volumes to make people of our society really feel what goes on in traditional societies. To feel jealous of their solidarity. To feel unloved by our own. It's great! READ IT.
Remarkable first book from promising author!.......2000-04-04
First published in 1947 and available in a wide variety of editions since then, Farley Mowat's first and most distant book is still remarkably readable in the world of the 21st century. It concerns one of the stranger human sagas of the last century, that of the discovery and destruction of a remote Inuit society, the Ihalmiut, in Canada's north. The setting of the book is far enough away in time for us to marvel at how little things have changed since. The contemptuous attitude of European man for the aborigine seems hardly to have altered over the years. We are still hard put to understand the needs of the first peoples and how to answer them.
Farley Mowat has combined a fine sensitivity for the natural environment with a sharp eye for the details of man's place within it. It must be exceedingly rare in the history of anthropology that such an inexperienced investigator has taken such pains to get to the source of his information. Mowat lived among the Ihalmiut for over a year to write the book. During that time he witnessed the rapid deterioration of the small group which remained, and tried to examine the causes of their decline. With very deft prose for such a young writer, he points out the difference between the intentions and the actions of the European discoverers of The People (as they refer to themselves) and the consequences of such disparity. The Ihalmiut were exploited in much the same way as any other tribal band found wandering by the early explorers. However, as Mowat points out, this was an exceptional group which had survived the extreme rigours of a barren land (known to us simply as The Barrens) for so many generations, only to be felled by contact with the very race which might have provided them with so much assistance.
The Ihalmiut are long gone from their homeland but their story serves to remind us of our often difficult relationship with the land and the people on it. Perhaps, as a race of city-dwellers, we need to consider our place in the natural environment more than ever. Mowat's work is a just accounting of where we stand in relationship to nature. Nor does he suggest that we should all go and live in the tundra. Yet People of the Deer is a source of considerable inspiration for those now ready to reflect on the unbalancing effect of contemporary values.
People Of The Deer.......2000-02-03
A truly insightful story of the inland eskimo people of the Canadian Arctic. It details not only their day to day survival in a harsh land, but also tells of their myths, legends, and history. It also tells of the whiteman's interference with their culture and how that affect may ultimately lead to their extinction. The book sincerely takes the reader into the lives of the People of the Deer.
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