Marja and Mama V

"P. D. Callahan is a master of the sea and the people who live and work by it. He has written a monumental work in Marja and Mama V, full of action, romance and a gentle but searching human wisdom. The scenes and backgrounds of this absorbing, exciting novel are described and brought to life with vivid brush strokes and it is easy and delightful to live in the story for a few absorbing days. Callahan's saga of the oceans is a shining victory and a most worthy contribution to the literature of the sea alongside Jack London, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad and Richard Henry Dana. Rush, don't walk, to grab a copy. It's worth it."
David Fairbank White, author with Margaret Stanback White, of award winning book, Wings of War

"No amount of family lore can truly describe the chaotic, tragic, and sometimes serendipitous circumstances that lead us to our current place in the world. P. D. Callahan shows us, through the intimate stories of his characters, the injustices, the desperations, the hope for a better world, along with the instinct for daily survival, as they cross the great migratory surface of the 18th Century ocean. We may never look at our ancestors' simple stories the same way again."
Cameron Byron Roberts, architect & artist

"Unusual, brilliant and strong women were what I most enjoyed in this gripping novel by Paul David Callahan. Set in the 18th century, the book covers wide terrain, from Finland to a tiny, corrupt Dutch island in the Caribbean, to Africa and then to trade outposts in North America, all while teaching the reader about everything from midwifery to navigation, ship building and woodworking to the slave trade and bloody battles on the high seas. Through it all Marja of Finland and Mahvi of Africa serve as wise and intuitive moral compasses in a turbulent, greedy world. Love that transcends racial, class and international boundaries is the glue that holds everything in a delicate yet powerful embrace."
Sarah Dixwell Brown, author of award winning book, Regicide in the Family