RI Authors Showcase - Meet Paul Caranci

Nov 26

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Welcome to the Rhode Island Authors Showcase! Each day in November, this blog will feature a different Rhode Island author. Read the post and leave a comment and you are eligible to win this day’s giveaway!

Leave a comment every day this month for over 30 chances to win either our Grand Prize (a $250 Amazon gift card), our Bonus Prize (a $100 Amazon gift card), or a Cheer-Up Prize (amount to be determined), just in time for holiday shopping!

A winner will be randomly selected one week after the publication of the blog post, and the Grand Prize and Bonus Prize winners will be randomly selected on December 7, 2021. For the daily giveaways, the author will contact you directly to coordinate delivery. Print books for delivery within the US only, please.

Paul Caranci

Paul Caranci is a public speaker and the author of 13 books. He is a third-generation resident of North Providence, Rhode Island, and has been a student of history for many years. He served as RI Deputy Secretary of State for eight years and was elected to the town council, where he served for almost seventeen years. He has a BA in political science from Providence College and is working toward an MPA from Roger Williams University. He is an incorporating member of the Association of Rhode Island Authors (ARIA) and a member of the board of the RI Publication Society.

In 2015, Paul was awarded the Margaret Chase Smith American Democracy Award for Political Courage, the highest honor awarded by the National Association of Secretaries of State, for his undercover role in exposing political corruption in his hometown of North Providence. His undercover work with the FBI, in breaking up what a federal judge called a criminal empire, is the subject of Paul's seventh book, Wired: A Shocking True Story of Political Corruption and the FBI Informant Who Risked Everything to Expose It. Paul’s latest book, scheduled for release by Stillwater River Publications in early November 2021, chronicles daily life for World War II prisoners held at the Dachau, Germany’s oldest and most brutal concentration camp. The Nazi regime programmed every activity to inflict the most physical and psychological pain possible. The sadistic nature of the camp commanders is portrayed through the eyes of Fr. Jean Bernard, a Catholic priest from Luxembourg imprisoned at Dachau for using the Catholic Film
Agency to denounce the inhumane policies of the Nazis. This remarkable true story is a must read for lovers of history and World War II enthusiasts.

Four of Paul’s books were awarded special recognition. The Hanging & Redemption of John Gordon: The True Story of Rhode Island's Last Execution (The History Press, 2013) was voted one of the top five non-fiction books of 2013 by the Providence Journal. Scoundrels: Defining Corruption Through Tales of Political Intrigue in Rhode Island (Stillwater River Publications 2016) was the winner of the 2016 Dorry Award as the non-fiction book of the year. The Promise of Fatima: One Hundred Years of History, Mystery and Faith (Stillwater River Publications, 2017), and I Am The Immaculate Conception: The Story of Bernadette of Lourdes (Stillwater River Publications, 2018), were named finalists in the International Book Awards in 2018 and 2019 respectively. The movie rights to four of Paul's books, The Hanging & Redemption of John Gordon: The True Story of Rhode Island's Last Execution, The Promise of Fatima: One Hundred Years of History, Mystery and Faith, I Am The Immaculate Conception: The Story of Bernadette of Lourdes, and Terror in Wichita: A True Story of One Woman's Courage and Her Will to Live(Stillwater River Publications, 2020) have been sold to a Hollywood production company and may one day be featured on the big screen.
Paul and his wife Margie have two adult children and four grandchildren.

Visit Paul's website here: http://www.paulcaranci.com/

Find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcaranci

Follow him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.caranci

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/paulcaranci

The impact that Adolf Hitler's Third Reich had on European Jews, Communists, Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, and various others deemed by the Nazis to be "asocials" is a well-documented fact of history. Less discussed, however, is Hitler's disdain for organized religion and his attempt to eradicate Christianity from Europe. Dachau, the first and most brutal of all the Nazi concentration camps, was the site chosen to assemble the largest gathering of Catholic and Christian clergymen in history. Their inhumane treatment at the hands of the most ruthless collection of behemoths known to humanity is now brought to graphic life through the eyes of a Catholic priest imprisoned in Dachau in the early 1940s.

Darkness at Dachau is the remarkable true story of Father Jean Bernard's stay at Germany's most brutal prison camp. The Luxembourg priest had been a vocal critic of the Nazi regime and used the Catholic film office to advocate his anti-fascist views. Following a year-long incarceration, Fr. Bernard was given an unprecedented ten-day furlough, during which time he was presented with an opportunity that would result in his permanent release and the release of hundreds of other clergymen housed at the Nazi camp. All he had to do was admit that he had been wrong in his opposition to the Third Reich and endorse its policies. Would he comply with their wishes to free himself and his fellow priests or would he return to the daily torture, starvation, and inhumanity that was life at Dachau?

Darkness at Dachau: The True Story of Father Jean Bernard is destined to become a tour-de-force in the study of the impacts of Nazi Germany on religious freedom. It also exposes a dark and critical history that receives far too little attention.

Paul is giving away a print copy of Darkness at Dachau to one winner. Just leave a comment below to be eligible.