Sammy’s Story is my first novel inspired by the history of the oppression of the Algerian people at the hands of the French, the history and beauty of the Caribbean island of St. Martin, and the geography and themes of Dante’s Purgatorio.

The dramatic center of the story occurs when Sammy gets involved in drug smuggling after finding every other opportunity blocked following the destruction of much of the island’s tourist industry by a hurricane in 1995. The story is set against a backdrop of the outbreak of the Algerian civil war and increasing social conflict and terrorism in the Parisian metropole, which reawakens the bias and bigotry that is endemic against Arab Algerians in French society.

While one of his co-conspirators is arrested right away when they bring their load of drugs ashore, Sammy eludes the gendarmes via a daring solo nighttime run up and over Paradise Peak on St. Martin. He earns enough money from selling their illicit cargo to take over a bar and launch a new life with the help of Maria, a waitress who, following on what a friend started back in Marseilles, liberates him from his traditional expectations of love and success.