In the winter of 1993, travel writer and essayist Edward Hoagland was travelling in Eastern Africa on assignment for Harper’s Magazine. He had visited the region twice before, in the years 1976 and 1977. This time, however, a civil war was raging in Sudan and a crippling famine gripped the region. Political, ethnic and religious conflict had created a web of alliances that divided the country, making travel outside the cities a dangerous and complicated ordeal. As he ventured into famine zones alongside NGO
(non-governmental organizations)
aid groups, Mr.

SQuire Rushnell’s latest book, Divine Alignment (2012, Simon & Schuster Inc.), is the fifth book in his Godwink series, the term he coined to describe how life’s un-coincidental coincidences all come together to create a purpose in our lives. Once again he rejects the idea that we are all “twigs floating down a river to destinations unknown.” Instead, he believes these coincidences, or godwinks, have divine underpinnings.