Light from the Disappearing Sun
An odyssey of an Algerian boy who braves unimaginable hardships and perils to find his mother who has become a victim of the country’s civil war. In 1991, Farid Belkadi enrolls in an Islamic school where he is supposed to be safe from the Islamic Salvation Front. However, a fatwa is issued against his feminist mother. Sent away to Morocco for his safety, Farid refuses to believe the rumor that his mother has been killed. Determined to find her, Farid makes a twisted and dangerous journey through Europe and North Africa where he is kidnapped by desert bandits and forced to tan leather in blood-filled vats. Each time, he makes a miraculous escape relying on his courage and the kindness of strangers. Light from the Disappearing Sun is a measure of what human beings can be when they are met with death, despair, and suffering. It is a portrait of human resiliency and courage against the greatest of odds. Read Excerpt

Milk and Cookies with the President
A picture book manuscript about Chehab’s five-year-old daughter who wished to meet the President of the United States after being diagnosed with leukemia. Five months later, she walked into the Oval Office and was embraced by the President. It is amazing how an ordinary life can become extraordinary. Milk and Cookies with the President is told with the simple charm of a young girl and inspires children to discover joy even in dark times.

Simple Gifts
Thirteen-year-old Leo Ampudia is convinced that he and everything he touches is going to die—including his twin sister who has bone cancer. Diagnosed with a ‘severe anxiety disorder caused by parents abandoning him to save a dying child,’ Leo is scared to come out of his closet and is angry at the world. Yet through a turn of events and unexpected friendships, he learns to find his courage and faith that heal a life marred by the tragedy of pain and suffering. Simple Gifts captures the simplicity in our complex lives and lets us learn that you can’t live until you’ve learned how to die. Read Excerpt

The Tunnel
Palestinian tunnel owner, Omar Hamdan, is a doting family man in a society full of chaos and conspiracy. Skirting the Israeli-imposed embargo in the Occupied Territories, he transports black market goods from Egypt to Gaza through his tunnel. Omar and his family are thrust into an unthinkable struggle when his daughter, Hanan, is diagnosed with leukemia. In need of a bone marrow transplant, treatment is impossible in Gaza. Omar’s daughter and his family travel back and forth through his tunnel for treatment in Egypt. Politics, war, money, superstition, along with cancer are what the Hamdan’s must battle together. The Tunnel is a testament to the endurance of spirit and the way a family regains their hope in a region occupied by turmoil.