The Buddha in Our Bellies - by Keith Robinson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Buddha in Our Bellies spans continents and centuries in sharing two lifelong quests for liberation and connection. Yoshiko's memoirs of struggle, hope, and self-reliance intertwine with Keith's stories of compromised immunity, Buddhist tales, and poetry.

A mysterious ailment rips through young Keith's guts, and his conflicted family is disintegrating. His sense of himself deteriorates to feeling invisible, lost, and unreal. His only hope for healing lies in the least expected, most vulnerable place. Yoshiko grows up determined to work for peace beyond her remote mountainside village and move past her family's trauma of Stalin's forced labour camps and post-war starvation.

Review Quotes

To read Keith Robinson is to go on a journey. He sets you down on a river of in-between spaces, of knowing and not knowing, belonging and not belonging, of illness and health, and keeps you flowing along a current of evocative prose. Sometimes contemplative, sometimes turbulent and harrowing, this memoir is rich and full, and will carry you all the way to a great wide sea.

Traci Skuce, author of Hunger Moon

The Buddha in Our Bellies is a candid observation of what it means to be human. With endearing sensitivity and wit it describes falling prey to a destructive ailment and honing the spiritual resilience to tame the beast.

Garry Hoffart, Educator

I feel this story. The Buddha in Our Bellies touches places in me that I recognize but haven't explored. This is the story I want to walk with for myself. Sandy Bassie, poet and memoirist

Keith is a natural storyteller and poet. This excellent asset makes reading his journey a delight. By including the story of the Buddha, the jewel in the robe and other parables it awakens the reader to Keith's realization that we're all connected. His questions (and answers) have been the quest of many for centuries. I wanted to hear more about his and Yoshikos experiences. The way they handled their circumstances is a guide for everyone. This book inspires, well done!

Jeanine Munn

A Jules Verne adventure; "Journey to the Centre of the Earth",

the famous escape tunnels from the prisoner of war camps,

the "Divine Comedy", Dante singing a "Change is Gonna Come" and so much more!

Please don't turn this into a movie, it could suffer the fate of "Eat Pray Love..."

unless you can get Joshua Mostel to play Keith and Michelle Yeoh to play Yoshiko.

And no, this is not a sequel to "An American in Paris".

If anyone thinks life is a boring day to day drudgery of meaningless suffering, I will personally hand deliver this book to them showing the victorious journey of two

"Beautiful Lives".

I'm refreshed once again to travel the road set out before us.

Daniel Rudick