Love amidst the killing fields

Marco Abraham did not write a non-fiction book about the continuing conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis; instead he retells and relives this painful massacre on September 16, 1982, a date that is best buried, but should never be forgotten. Lost Blood takes the readers to the unstable political unrest in the Middle East. It is a dark historical time in which hate, genocide, and evil battle and sometimes trupimph over love, humanity, and faith. Amidst the killing fields of Sabra and Shantila, a beautiful angel lives and love is born. Abraham intimately shares this private love so tenderly; the reader temporarily escapes, “hell on earth”.

Unapologetically, Abraham violently forces the readers to face each victim. He is the tortured elderly man who dies defending his honor. He is the screaming woman whose unborn child aborts her womb. He is the innocent child who suffers the unspeakable rape. He is the young man who comforts his mother with his last dying breath. He is the angle who prays that her love will survive. He is Marco Abraham, a survivor. These are innocent victims, not merely characters in a book. Lost Blood challenges the readers to see the suffering, hear the cries of injustice, feel the hands of evilness, taste the bittersweet fruit of love, and ultimately touch death by the thousands.

Lost Blood evokes so many emotions from its readers; it takes courage to finish this story. Abraham is ruthless in his quest to remind the readers that indifference or even ignorance may, will, and did result in a massacre. The atrocity of Sabra and Shantila so painfully and powerfully vivid with Abraham’s words transcend age, gender, race, and religion. It calls for all Jews, Christians, and Muslims to learn from the past and move forward with peace. Lost Blood must be told. It is told through the voice of Marco Abraham. Read Lost Blood and you can never remain voiceless; be their voice.

Reviewer:

Samanta P. Souriya

USD259 Educator

Wichita, KS 67210

Second Review


Lost Blood is not a book that will easily be forgotten. It is haunting. The reader is left with the unfulfilled desire to reconcile the "why" with the "what." Unfortunately, there is no offered rhyme or reason. The burden of making sense of the injustices described within the pages is left on the shoulders of the reader. It is an important story. It is a true story. It is a story of experiences that are not isolated to this particular massacre or this particular region of the world. Through Lost Blood, the author opens the door of understanding, empathy, and world-awareness, even if only a crack. The book has the potential to create a change. A change that may influence our perspective and lead us to a more tolerant and compassionate future.
Lost Blood is a combination narrative and a tender love story. The striking difference that sets it apart from others in this genre is the atrocious environment that provides the stage for the author's experiences. The story is written in a straightforward, matter-of-fact, graphic, crude, and at times, offensive tone. All of this contributes to the reader becoming immersed in the story of a different time and different place.
There are parts of the book that are graphically detailed and painful to read. This is no small feat in a culture that surrounds itself by obligatory gore in our movies, television shows, and video games. Unfortunately, to truly get a sense of the desperation, violence, and evil experienced by the victims of this massacre the shocking, graphic descriptions are necessary. The in-your-face writing style holds the reader's attention even when they wish to turn away.

In his writing, Marco Abraham has successfully captured a truth about the human spirit and the resilience of youth. His childhood descriptions include happiness and playing, although the toys were guns and the play amid dead bodies. Even friends killed during the games the children were playing, did not completely stifle the ability of the author to be a child. The story provides poignant insight into the experience of boys becoming men in a time of strife and misery. The author wants to bravely fulfill his duty of providing for his family and hopefully in doing so, catches the attention and approval of the girl he loves.

www.rockymountainnews.com

Lost Blood: An Eyewitness Account of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre

By Verna Noel Jones, Special to the Rocky
October 5, 2007
• Nonfiction. By Marco Abraham, $27. Grade: A

Book in a nutshell: Abraham was just 18 years old when he survived the massacre of unarmed and innocent Palestinian refugees living in the Shatila and Sabra camps in Beirut, Lebanon. Beginning in June 1982, the camps came under a three-month siege by the Israeli army, which was trying to rout out members of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The area was bombed and no food or water allowed inside. Starving refugees were forced to eat cats, dogs, rats and even human flesh to survive.

But the worst was yet to come, when the Lebanese Christian Phalangists attacked the camps. The Phalangists were seeking revenge for the assassination of the newly elected president of Lebanon, Bashir Gemayel of the Phalange Party. The guerrillas came in for blood, wielding hatchets, swords and knives. Women, children and elderly people were raped, tortured and murdered by the thousands in the most gruesome ways possible. The author's fiancée, Rola, was among those who didn't survive.

Abraham spares no words as he describes in haunting detail all that he saw.

Best tidbit: Despite the suffering and brutality Abraham witnessed, he calls for peace among Muslims, Jews and Christians in the hope that all will have a better future without hate and revenge.

Pros: Abraham, now an American citizen, is donating all proceeds from this book to feed starving children in Africa.

Cons: The graphic book is likely to invoke nightmares. Here, for example, is what he says about the murder of a young boy: The soldier "grabs the child's ankles just above his small white tennis shoes, carrying him to the same bloodstained cement wall that the woman was just raped against. Swinging him back for added momentum, the soldier slams the child head first against the wall again and again. On the third impact I see three-quarters of the boy's head fly off, a white substance, his brain, follows. . . . The killer, now finished with his fun, throws the tiny body to the middle of the street. His audience of four compatriot butchers gather 'round to pat him on the back for a job well-done."

Final word: This will probably be the most painful book you'll ever read, but it's a just tribute to those who paid the terrible price





I was privileged to meet the author of this book. It is called
Lost Blood: An Eyewitness Account of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre.
By: Marco Abraham. http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=003183

Related articles from HighBeam Research:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-377393.html