For the Love of Beirut

As a young boy navigating the streets of Beirut during the civil war of 1975 and the Israeli invasion of 1982, Samuel looks in awe at all that is happening around him. With great tenacity he continues to go to school, work a summer job, and play soccer with his friends even as shells rain down and missiles fly overhead. His adventures are often harrowing and many times humorous as he and his family are always in survival mode, bags packed and heading for the bomb shelter at a moment's notice.
When the situation becomes too dangerous for Samuel, his father sends him to Virginia to live with relatives. Again, he is in awe of all he sees around him and constantly compares life in his adopted city of Richmond to his life in Beirut. Frustrated that his friends and others in the United States do not seem to understand the destruction taking place in Beirut, he makes a desperate decision that changes his life forever.
This is a serious story of war told with both humor and gravity from a young boy's perspective, a perspective that matures and broadens as he comes of age. Boyhood escapades that rival Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are part of every day life along with more daring deeds and just-in-time Houdini escapes. The survival skills he learned as a boy served him well during the second chapter of his life as he pays the consequences for making the world look at what was happening in Beirut whether they wanted to or not.