This is the story of a boy that answers the question: How much can a human being endure simply surviving the hand that one is dealt in life? Inexplicably favored by providence, he endured more than he ever thought possible. In his first 19 years of life, his father was tortured to death during the Korean War, his stepmother sent him to an orphanage from which he ran away, and he had to work as a laborer for his entire teenage years. Through it all, in spite of the endlessly lonely days and desolate nights, he never abandoned his own innate hope and idealism. Now as a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland with an immensely satisfying career behind him, he tells the riveting story of his childhood as an epic tale of survival and an inspiring testament to the human spirit. When my throat bleeds from screaming, the head explodes, eyes pop out, and ears fall off, I will remember the story of a boy and then what? The end. - Brenda Amato