A powerful story of struggle, survival, and hope for the future is told by one of Denmark's most successful artists. The
violent,
compelling debut, co-written with
journalist Dart Adams, provides a
complex portrait of one man and the various ways in which every
social system that was supposed to help him
failed him, while also delving into the psychology of
immigrant gangs and the young men who fall into them. But ultimately, it's a narrative about
tenacity,
survival, and
optimism for the future.
Sleiman was born in
Lebanon during the
1982 bombardment and is a
Palestinian. His family eventually moved to
Denmark, but their new life there was far from perfect. Sleiman was subjected to
domestic violence as well as
social rejection as a
Muslim immigrant. Angry and powerless, he found himself
drawn to gang life.
Sleiman had dropped out of school and was one of his gang's
most feared and
revered members as a teenager. He was involved in
hundreds of crimes during his peak, but after surviving an
attempted assassination, he addressed his demons and permanently
abandoned the gang life. Sleiman is now narrating his story in his own words in the hopes of discouraging others from following in his footsteps.
