William Mark Habeeb’s Venice Beach, a moving tale of the resilience of youth, releases August 17
“You won’t forget Venice Beach.” — Doug Wilhelm, author of Street of Storytellers and The Revealers
Vermont Business Magazine Rootstock Publishing, a Montpelier-based publisher and imprint of Multicultural Media, Inc., announces the August 17th release of Venice Beach, a coming-of-age novel by William Mark Habeeb, of Arlington, Virginia.
Venice Beach follows a thirteen-year-old boy who flees an abusive household for the lure of sunny California. It is 1968, and Venice Beach, or “Slum-by-the-Sea,” is steeped in the culture of drugs, war, and sex. But for Moon—a name he chooses for himself—the culture’s outer chaos matches the intensity of his inner chaos: his quest for light, love, and acceptance as he tries to erase the legacy of his hurtful past.
“I was inspired to write Venice Beach from a dream that I had while on a trip to California,” said author Habeeb. “But I have been interested in coming-of-age in both literature and psychology ever since my own extremely difficult coming-of-age, around age 14. I believe that so much of our identities—of our narrative sense of self—is formed during those years,” he said.
William Mark Habeeb was born and raised in Alabama, the son of a Lebanese immigrant father and a Cuban-American mother. He earned degrees from Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities, and studied literature at the University of Sussex and psychoanalytic theory with the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. He teaches in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Venice Beach is available for pre-order at local bookstores and on Amazon, Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Rootstock Publishing (www.rootstockpublishing.com). Libraries receive a 20% discount (they must contact [email protected]).
Release Date: August 17, 2021 / 254 pages / 6 x 9 / ISBN:978-1-57869-061-9 / $17.95
Literary Fiction / Distributed Worldwide by Ingram
ADVANCE PRAISE
“What a relief it is to see an adolescent song that does not partake of sensational rhetorical exceptionalism of some sort—speak like Twain, Salinger’s Holden’s Tourette’s—for its effect. A crime common if not endemic to the form, of which I am guilty. Venice Beach portrays sad tough boyhood, not reaching for cuddly surrealism. The story is compelling for what in it feels completely true, and not pushed or forced.”
—Padgett Powell, author of Edisto, The Interrogative Mood, and Indigo
“Venice Beach is written with easy, unpretentious prose that lets shine through the authenticity of the young narrator's voice, a teen runaway who, in an attempt to reclaim and redefine his present from his brutal past, has renamed himself after his favorite celestial body. As the moon in the night sky allows us to hold the light when we are in the dark, Moon, the boy, reminds us, as he navigates the unpredictable, and often malevolent impulses of humanity, of the indomitable resilience and essential life-giving power of holding onto hope.”
—Ian Chorão, author of Bruiser
“Heartbreak, passion and mystery abound in this powerfully moving coming-of-age story that captures the crazy, vibrant essence of pre-gentrified Venice, a place that pulsed with creative energy. Venice Beach in 1968 proves to be the perfect place for a troubled young runaway to discover who he is and what his life is all about; a transformative personal journey that is powerful, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful.”
—John O’Kane, author of Venice, CA: A City State of Mind, A Venice Quintet,
and Jukebox Confessionals
About Rootstock Publishing
With offices in downtown Montpelier, Rootstock Publishing is a hybrid publisher and an imprint of Multicultural Media, Inc. Their books have won multiple book awards such as the IPPY, Foreword INDIES, the IBPA Ben Franklin Award, and Independent Book Publishers of New England awards, among others. They publish poetry, fiction, and nonfiction book manuscripts by authors from all over the globe. Learn more at rootstockpublishing.com.
Source: Rootstock Publishing, an imprint of Multicultural Media Inc. 7.14.2021. Montpelier www.rootstockpublishing.com