Crisscrossing Paths: Through Sorrow, Joy, Departure, Reunion

CRISSCROSSING PATHS is a saga of four families or people as they grieve, rejoice, say goodbye and reunite over the course of approximately one hundred years. It starts on the first day of the WWI Battle of the Somme. After the armistice the story goes southward to the Himalayan foothill station of Dharamsala where a Captain Elliot retreats to recover from haunting memories of things he had seen and done during the war. From India the book carries on to the peacefulness of Canada in the 1920s and 30s; then to WWII in occupied Europe, and in the Malaya Peninsula and Burma. The independence of India and creation of Pakistan for Muslims is addressed along with the choice made by a Muslim man of the earlier chapters in Dharamsala. Part II follows the life of one main character through his childhood and youth until he goes to sea on a Canadian warship. The experiences he had are mostly funny, but on one occasion extremely sad. The second last reunion of the book seems to be created by a miracle, but for those who truly believe in God Almighty above it wasn’t. The book ends with the grandsons of Captain Elliot venturing to Dharamsala to observe what Walter Elliot had once told their father, Charles Elliot, about the place.