Thank you for visiting my page! A little about myself; I am a writer, a traveler (when I can), mostly the lost places. I have recently released my sixth novel, “The Unraveling“, about how it all came apart. I’ve also written “An Excess of Nationalism” about an old writer in Brezhnev’s Soviet Armenia. It is haunting and nostalgic. My 4th novel “I, Charles, From the Camps” is about a boy who was born in northern Uganda during the 25 year civil war and his attempts to make a life for himself, and why he fails – and why you or I would have done the same. “Lords of Misrule” is a story about the making and unmaking of a jihadist. My San Porfirio series I’ve brought into one volume, “The Epic Tale of Revolutionary Venezuela“. I have also written a play, “Dreams of the Defeated“, about a political prisoner in a totalitarian regime, dedicated to the Hong Kong kids and their fight for freedom. You can visit me at http://www.joelhirst.com or on facebook.
Joel D. Hirst's Blog 
your a great writer
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Thank you
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just read your review of “Why Liberalism Failed” and had to know more about you…absolutely adore your “take” on humanity!
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Thank you Lorraine that is generous. What would you like to know? I’ve been a humanitarian-and-peaceworker (not sure how else to say this?) for about twenty years – 5 civil wars, one actual war, volcanos and floods and earthquakes. Africa and Latin America and the Caucasus. I wrote 5 novels, one play – a poetry book coming out soon. Christian, married with a small family. Trying to find meaning in a world that sometimes seems a little meaningless; trying to fight the nonsense in all its forms in my own “one small voice” way. Reading a lot. Here’s my FB if you want to follow, https://www.facebook.com/JoelDHirst/
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I am from Ecuador, thank you for writing about Venezuela….
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Nations may fail. but they also recover. although thats a harder process. be strong – fight and work. we will see a future!!!
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I would like to thank for this article. You a really good author and I would like to offer you to join my online newspaper. https://thetechdiscovery.wordpress.com/ please subscribe and let me know what are you feelings about it. Thanks
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Hi Joel, I would like to congratulate you on a fantastic article about the suicide of Venezuela. Truly touching and eye-opening. I am editor-in-chief of inBRAZIL. A blog that discusses Brazil in English. I would like to invite you to write an article for us about Brazil “escaping” populism with the impeachment of Dilma and a change of the economic and institutional politics. Could you reply to this email so we could discuss further? fernanda.farina@inbrazil.net
Thank you and congratulations!
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Bonjour Joel, j’ai adoré votre livre “le seigneur du chaos”, mais je ne trouve pas la traduction française de votre dernier livre. Auriez-vous des informations sur de futures traductions? Et si oui, pourriez vous les indiquer?
Bien cordialement.
Xavier.
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Merci beaucoup pour votre email. La prochaine traduction sera Chaos en espagnol. Et je suis auissi en train de finaliser mon cinquième roman maintenant. Si vous envoyez un e-mail à le président d’Institut Coppet en lui disant ce que vous pensez de la traduction, il pourrait petetre traduire une autre Le rédacteur en chef est benoit.malbranque@espeme.com Souhaitez-vous aussi écrire une critique sur Amazon? Ca aide beaucoup. Merci!!!
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How are you doing! Good to see you here. Hopefully, you are doing great.
We have had good time at Brandeis.
Muhammad zahid
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HI Muhammad – yes doing well, how are you?
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I also enjoy reading Camus. His philosophy of finding meaning in life in a universe that is meaningless has merit.
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I think the thing that sets him apart is the ability to make meaninglessness also somehow optimistic, which is a trick 🙂
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Hi Joel, I’ve arrived here from your Amazon review of What is to be Done, which I found by way of reading Nabokov’s The Gift (Penguin translation, which contains a fictionalised demolition of Chernyshevski). Thanks so much for your review as it’s going to mean more study of this subject – before it’s too late – as you might remark!
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Thanks Neil – welcome and so grateful that you stopped by!! If you want to sign up to get notifications, I try and write like 3 or 4 times a month. And I welcome you to stop by my Amazon page and pick up a book also, if you are so inclined. Happy to be in touch! https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joel-D.-Hirst/author/B00J5YPT2Q?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
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Great to see your novels. It was terrific times at Brandeis. zahid
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Thank you!! You’ll like the “Lords of Misrule” one, I spent 2.5 years in Mali and its about the Sahara and the Tuareg and Morocco and Islam. It was a very interesting place to research those things.
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I wanted to buy Lords of Misrule, but was unable to either get the free sample, or buy the book, from Amazon’s US website using the Chrome browser under Windows 10. I had to use Firefox. I don’t see any way to tell Amazon about this problem, so I’m telling you.
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hmm, weird, first I’ve heard of this problem. Were you able to get it? Need me to send you a copy?
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I was able to, using Firefox. Chrome and the Amazon website both change every day, so bugs using Amazon with Chrome come and go.
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