"Habeeb's engaging novel skillfully explores the dark underbelly of growing up in an abusive household and trying to choose a new family. Moon's early life...

"Habeeb's engaging novel skillfully explores the dark underbelly of growing up in an abusive household and trying to choose a new family. Moon's early life experiences are full of trauma and pain. 'When kids run away from home, ' he reflects at the beginning of the book, 'people try to find them and send them back. It apparently never occurs to them that kids run away for a reason, and because running away is difficult and scary that reason must be a damn good one.' The author deftly concocts an emotionally tumultuous narrative with an array of misfits and outcasts who come together out of both necessity and love...Readers will root for the hero's success and safety." -Kirkus Reviews

It's 1968. A thirteen-year-old boy flees his abusive father and alcoholic mother for sunny California. Barely surviving on the streets of Los Angeles, a fateful encounter leads him to the bohemian community of Venice Beach, known at the time as "Slum-by-the-Sea." He takes refuge in a youth shelter and renames himself Moon, symbolizing his quest for a guiding light.

Over the next two years Moon struggles with trust, love, sexual orientation confusion, drug use, homelessness, and haunting flashbacks from his childhood. As cultural upheaval over the Vietnam War rages, Moon assembles a new family of his own making, but a shocking and unexpected discovery upends who he thinks he is. Venice Beach is a moving tale of the resilience of youth and the importance of reflecting on our stories.

Author: William Mark Habeeb
Publisher: Rootstock Publishing
Published: 08/17/2021
Pages: 254
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.69d
ISBN: 9781578690718

About the Author
Habeeb, William Mark: - William Mark Habeeb was born and raised in Alabama, the son of a Lebanese immigrant father and a Cuban-American mother. He earned degrees in international relations at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities, read literature and philosophy at the University of Sussex and studied psychoanalytic theory with the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. He teaches in Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and lives in Virginia. He is a member of the board of Virginia Humanities, the state's humanities council. Habeeb has published over a dozen non-fiction books for scholarly, general public and young adult audiences. His short fiction has appeared in the Berkeley Fiction Review and Broken Pencil. Venice Beach is his first novel.