By Amnesty International USA, Broadway, $16.00, 414 pages
Amnesty International’s goal is the protection of the dignity and rights of individuals. To mark its fiftieth birthday, the organization is publishing the first American edition of Freedom, an anthology filled with stories celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document proclaims thirty rights that belong to us all. Thirty internationally acclaimed writers take one Article and use it as inspiration for a short story. Readers will find it helpful to refer to the actual text of the Articles (included in the back of the book) as they tackle each story. Walter Mosley’s piece titled “The Trial” is about a group of neighbors in a housing project who take matters into their own hands when they know they won’t find justice with the local police. In Kate Atkinson’s “The Ware on Women,” Britain passes a law requiring women to wear the full burqa and robs them of all their human rights. Some of the stories are literal interpretations of an Article and others are more surreal. Some are based on anger, others hope. All are inspirational. Readers will likely look for additional work by their favorite authors.
Reviewed by Kathryn Franklin