Synopsis
By Author M. RUTLEDGE McCALL...
Seven years before the emergence of the modern state of Israel, a boy was born in an ancient city in Palestine called Lydda (also known as Lod), the setting of the Bible story of Acts 9:32, in which the apostle Peter miraculously heals a man who has been paralyzed from birth. But this is a story of more recent greatness that came out of this town of miracles located in dusty hills surrounded by harsh, ruggedly beautiful countryside in the heart of Palestine. It is the story of a boy who was different than all the others. A boy of rare grit and determination the likes of which hasn't been seen by Palestinian refugees in generations.
The Road to Nablus is the true story of a boy who fought to escape from a hardscrabble refugee camp in Palestine and a wretched destiny in store for him in the aftermath of World War II. He was seven years old when United Nations Resolution 181 was enacted in November of 1947 to partition Palestine and to allow displaced Jews into the region after the war. The young boy's family suffered greatly in the ensuing violence. He was eight years old when soldiers showed up at his family's house in Lydda in the summer of 1948 and evicted them at gunpoint.
Told that there was no longer a place for them and their generations in this region renamed Israel, they were sent eastward into Transjordan. Carrying what few belongings they could grab, they trekked east, to an area of land located in a rock-strewn, dry, hilly desert in the western reaches of Transjordan.
The refugees were resettled twenty miles east of Lydda in a refugee tent camp in this new "West Bank" portion of Transjordan, almost exactly halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. There, these native, homeless Palestinian civilians could try to eke out a living. The boy, his brothers, his father and mother, and a few other family members would all live together in one tent, with no electricity, no running water, no amenities, a small monthly food allotment from the UN, and only the barest necessities. They would live in that camp for the remainder of the boy's childhood and upbringing, never to see their home in Lydda again.
In spite of his circumstances, the boy felt destined for more than an existence of hopeless desolation and abject poverty. Yet, how he would lift himself out of his circumstances while living among thousands of other forcibly displaced refugees in a ghetto camp, he had no idea. Then, in 1950, when he was ten, a dramatic event occurred that offered him a possibility of escape. The odds were slim, but the boy now had hope, a vision, and a plan to flee from a life drawn in the quickly aging face of his father. It would take eight years to bring his dream to reality. If he could pull it off at all.
In his book Back to Methuselah, George Bernard Shaw wrote, "You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'" The Road to Nablus is the incredible life story of a young boy who dreamed things that never were and said, Why not? Far from a "poor us" story or a them-against-us political diatribe, The Road to Nablus is a poignant and riveting true tale about a boy with a dream. It is a story of grit and romance, of struggle and hope, during the longest occupation in modern world history--an occupation that remains to this day.
With undertones of Saroo Brierley's best-selling book A Long Walk Home (the memoir that inspired the critically acclaimed hit movie "Lion") and Vikas Swarup's best-selling book Q & A (which was adapted into the smash hit movie "Slumdog Millionaire"), this story should speak to us all about what it takes to rise above injustices perpetrated against the young and the innocent.
About the Author
BASSAM HADI, M.D. was born on October 28, 1967, in Beirut, Lebanon. He grew up in Belleville, Illinois, and attended Belleville East High School. He went on to graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in physics engineering and a minor in mathematics. He graduated from St. Louis University School of Medicine in 1994 and completed his residency in neurological surgery at the University of Louisville in 2000. He then completed a spine surgery fellowship at the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 2001.
Dr. Hadi is the proud father of six beautiful children and works as a neurosurgeon at Mercy South Hospital in St Louis, Missouri, also serving as Department Chair of Surgery for Mercy Clinic South.
Author M. RUTLEDGE McCALL (who wrote the book as well as the screenplay adaptation) has written, ghostwritten, and developmentally edited scores of books for a high-profile worldwide clientele. His critically-acclaimed first book, titled Slipping Into Darkness, was published in 2000, and was later optioned for film by David Sacks, Co-Founder of PayPal.
McCall has worked with authors whose books have appeared on the best-selling lists of the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com. He has been featured on TV shows including NBC Today; BBC News; PBS; CNN News; KNBC News Nightside Cover Story; PBS/KCET Life And Times:Thinkers, Shakers and Newsmakers; Larry King Live; ABC News 9 Australia; and many others.
Earlier in his career, he worked as Managing Senior Editor at a niche traditional book publisher. Prior to that, he worked in the one-hour drama writers departments for most of the American television networks and in production management for many of the major US film companies, on some of the highest-grossing movies and top Nielsen-rated one-hour drama TV shows.
Read the Prologue of
The Road To Nablus here:
mrutledgemccall.com/nablus-prologue/
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
