This week I'm hosting Luigi Falconi, author of The Duke of Dubai. This book has been banned in Dubai so should make good reading.
So let's meet Mr. Falconi:
The love child of the local priest and the parish housekeeper, Luigi Falconi was born in Tricarico, italy, in 1945. Soon after his birth his parents immigrated to the United States.
He attended Mary Magdalene High School in Hoboken, New Jersey. Although an honor student with a football scholarship to Notre Dame, he left school to study Kabbalah. When fear of adult circumcision led him to give up the idea of converting to any religion that required surgery, he became an apprentice to a shoemaker on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
A skilled artisan, Luigi designed and crafted Chippewa moccasins while attending Michigan State University where he earned a BA in 1967 and an MA in 1969. While shoemaking and taking full-time university classes toward his Ph.D. in rocket science, he wrote three unpublished novels and one volume of poetry. The shoe shop burned in 1971, destroying Luigi’s manuscripts and his innocence. mentally drained from this tragedy, he did the only thing left for an educated shoemaker to do: he became a teacher and, soon after, an administrator.
In 1974, Luigi uprooted his family from the security and comfort of their middle-class American home to become the headmaster of a small oil company school in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. he left education in 1978 and went to work in the Middle East oilfields.
After thirty-two years in the hot desert sun of Arabia, Luigi, unable to distinguish fact from fiction in his own life, left Dubai and moved to Italy to learn Italian and rediscover the truth.
http://www.thedukeofdubai.com/
Contact Denise Cassino, dencassino@gmail.com, Publicist - for review copies and ordering
10 comments:
Great post Elysabeth. Luigi's book sounds very interesting as does his life.
Karen
What an interesting post. I'm curious why it was banned and if there is any movement to perhaps remove it?
The book sounds fascinating -- I'm looking forward to reading it.
I wish Mr. Falconi and/or Denise would stop by and answer everyone's question. If I can get the answers, I'll try to post them for you all. Monday I'll have a summary of the book posted. So keep checking back and see what's new. Thanks to all of you who are reading and following the blogs - E :)
Hi and Happy New Year to all.
Thanks for the comments on The Duke of Dubai. The novel started out to be a biography of my early days in Dubai. When I finished the first manuscript I couldn’t find a publisher so I put it on the shelf for five years. When I picked it up again in 2005, I realized why — it was pretty boring. As Dubai was going through a dynamic metamorphous I decided it would be more fun to give the reader a vision the old Dubai and what it is becoming, so I added a bit of humor, with action and adventure. As an ex-educator I also wanted the reader to learn something about the people and culture of the Arabian Gulf countries. The result was The Duke of Dubai
Truth or fiction - The characters are based on real people. Dubai was full of eccentric characters in the early oil-boom days. The events are also based on actual experiences, maybe embellished a bit, like my bio that has been posted. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide what is truth or fiction.
Check out my website and read the first chapter. www.thedukeofdubai.com .
Regards,
Luigi
Truth or fiction - The characters are based on real people. Dubai was full of eccentric characters in the early oil-boom days. The events are also based on actual experiences, maybe embellished a bit, like my bio that has been posted. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide what is truth or fiction.
Check out my website and read the first chapter. www.thedukeofdubai.com .
Regards,
Luigi
Lea,
As I mentioned in my first post the stories have an element of truth. Several stories involve Shaikh Mohammed, the Ruler of Dubai, as a youth. I think that he would look at the stories as follies of a young man that most of us go through on our passage of becoming an adult. He is a real Renaissance man who has matured into his position. I really don’t believe that he would be offended as it shows that he is human and that he has worked hard to prepare himself for his dedication to serve his people, his country and his religion. He would probably see this as an example to show Dubai’s youth that they too can also become dedicated to these ideals.
Unfortunately the censors and people around Shaikh Mohammed are overly protective of him and don’t want any negativity about his life to become public. I think that this is the case here. I’ve been told that the decision is final.
Regards,
Luigi
Holy moly what an amazing life story! woow!
Thank you for posting on this guy. His story is amazing. I can't believe it, 3 manuscripts burnt...the thought of it scares me. What a blow!
I will check out his book now, thanks to you. :)
Great post!
Thanks all for stopping by and especially thanks to Mr. Falconi for popping on for a few comments. Hope he has answered your questions. Hope you guys come back Monday and find out a little more about the book - looking forward to seeing you all in the postings - E :)
I read the first chapter of your book, Luigi. It was exciting. It makes me want to read more.
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