New book describes young man's flight from war torn Africa. His hopelessness, refugee camps and eventual escape to the West.
Written as a novel about a young man named "Ray," WAR CHILD is an unflinching
look at the horrors of human abuse and war—not just those horrors that haunt the battlefields, but horrors carried in the minds, hearts, and souls of every person who has fallen through the cracks of a fatigue global society.
Ray lives in constant fear of his father, a physically abusive and self-destructive gambler who reads his son's childhood bed—wetting as a critical
character flaw and accuses Ray's mother of having another man's child.
At the age of twelve, Ray flees his family and embarks on a search for acceptance, his true identity and a place to call home. His wanderings are guided by the literal woman of his dreams, Nexus, who fuels in him a desire to find the iconic White Princess who will one day be his wife.
Nexus leads Ray to pursue his dream in the streets of Port Harcourt, where, homeless and lost, he wanders for years sleeping on street corners. Like a character in a Hollywood movie, Ray falls into training and, soon, a promising career as a fashion designer. This takes him to Liberia where he finds a new family in his business mentor and her husband, and continues to dream of his invisible Princess.
Ray's fragile contentment is suddenly and horribly shattered by war. Ray and his new family escape, but not before his surrogate father is shot and Ray is abandoned by guerilla fighters on a deadly bridge in the middle of a war zone. He survives to be reunited with his adoptive parents and they flee to Sierra Leone.
As war first swept through Liberia, and then Sierra Leon, it drives him, and many
refugees like him to seek a safer haven. Ray pitched up on the shores of the Netherlands, where he found not the freedom he sought but, virtual imprisonment, uncertainty, culture shock and near— madness.
Yet even in the hopelessness of the refugee camps, even with the chain of disappointments and victimization, Ray finds faith and love. In the face of cruelty and violence, he finds kindness and friendship.
Ray's ultimate freedom is hard— won, but it is won at last through his indomitable spirit and a strong faith that prevails against all odds. He pulls his tattered self together finds his "Princess" and a new life.
look at the horrors of human abuse and war—not just those horrors that haunt the battlefields, but horrors carried in the minds, hearts, and souls of every person who has fallen through the cracks of a fatigue global society.
Ray lives in constant fear of his father, a physically abusive and self-destructive gambler who reads his son's childhood bed—wetting as a critical
character flaw and accuses Ray's mother of having another man's child.
At the age of twelve, Ray flees his family and embarks on a search for acceptance, his true identity and a place to call home. His wanderings are guided by the literal woman of his dreams, Nexus, who fuels in him a desire to find the iconic White Princess who will one day be his wife.
Nexus leads Ray to pursue his dream in the streets of Port Harcourt, where, homeless and lost, he wanders for years sleeping on street corners. Like a character in a Hollywood movie, Ray falls into training and, soon, a promising career as a fashion designer. This takes him to Liberia where he finds a new family in his business mentor and her husband, and continues to dream of his invisible Princess.
Ray's fragile contentment is suddenly and horribly shattered by war. Ray and his new family escape, but not before his surrogate father is shot and Ray is abandoned by guerilla fighters on a deadly bridge in the middle of a war zone. He survives to be reunited with his adoptive parents and they flee to Sierra Leone.
As war first swept through Liberia, and then Sierra Leon, it drives him, and many
refugees like him to seek a safer haven. Ray pitched up on the shores of the Netherlands, where he found not the freedom he sought but, virtual imprisonment, uncertainty, culture shock and near— madness.
Yet even in the hopelessness of the refugee camps, even with the chain of disappointments and victimization, Ray finds faith and love. In the face of cruelty and violence, he finds kindness and friendship.
Ray's ultimate freedom is hard— won, but it is won at last through his indomitable spirit and a strong faith that prevails against all odds. He pulls his tattered self together finds his "Princess" and a new life.
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