Oakton, VA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/21/2014 -- Elie Nakouzi was five-years-old when his world exploded around him.

Almost overnight, the once peaceful community where he lived with his family in Beirut, Lebanon, became a warzone. No longer able to play with his Muslim friends, Nakouzi struggled to understand a civil war that seemed so foreign to him. His only salvation was the thought of the United States of America – a country that encapsulated the ideals and freedoms he craved.

Although he witnessed the worst kinds of atrocities that men visit upon other men, it was only when Nakouzi found what he calls ‘the question mark’ that his calling in life crystallized.

In his visceral, electrifying and richly detailed new book, ‘Brotherly Enemies’ – the first volume in his ‘Memoirs of a Pro-American’ trilogy, Nakouzi takes readers on a journey through his life, from his time as a scared little boy in Beirut, to his years as a TV journalist and ‘the voice of the Opposition’.

As his audience widened, fame, wealth and unbridled success followed, but for Nakouzi, one thing was always clear.

“My aim was the liberation of my country,” he says. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

Synopsis:

Brotherly Enemies is a story of a young man growing up in the arms of one of the most turbulent regions in the world.

From the time Elie Nakouzi was five years old, the environment in his home of Beirut, Lebanon was riddled with tension and death. As a young man, Elie watched his once peaceful community of Furn el Chebbak turn from pleasant and thriving into a warzone, with Christian and Muslim neighbors becoming enemies in a civil war that would span the next 30 years. As a boy, Elie’s main concern was understanding the differences that tore him from his Muslim friends and caused his family and neighbors to fear the worst. He focused on American culture, believing that the free States was the life he desired. He began to refer to himself as a pro-American and sought to be part of the culture he so admired one day.

The Syrian occupation of Lebanon brought new terrors, as Beirut became separated into two factions, the west for the Muslims and the east for the Christians. Bearing witness to assassinations, other devastating crimes of war, and abominable displays of inhumanity, Elie found himself becoming immune to the constant barrage of death and hate and angry at the lack of protection from the rest of the world. This anger led to many questions, and once he discovered the question mark, Elie knew his future would always depend on it. As he grew older, his passion of journalism grew due a desire to denounce leaders such as President Hafez al-Assad, Saddam Hussein, and other brutal dictators.

Brotherly Enemies begins the tale of Elie and takes the reader through the start of his personal revolution as a radio host, television talk show host, and eventually a serious journalist breaking the barriers of freedom of speech and inflaming the ruling dictatorship. He experiences threats against his life and his family, but he also enjoys the splendors of success, becoming one of the most well-recognized journalists in Lebanon and a voice of the resistance, often rubbing elbows with some of the most powerful people in world, including members of the Saudi royal family. But money, fame, women, alcohol, and a rampant appetite for luxury were always at odds with Elie’s true passion: the liberation of his country.

This is the true story of one man’s perspective of war and his mission to bring it down, even if his voice was the only one being heard.

Since it’s publication, ‘Brotherly Enemies’ has earned dozens of glowing reviews.

“If legendary Holocaust writer Elie Wiesel is famous for writing heart-breaking recollections of his harrowing experience during the Second World War, then Elie Nakouzi is the Elie -- “memoirist” of what’s happening in the Middle East—how the region has been transformed into an unrelenting battlefield and bloodshed. ‘Brotherly Enemies’ is a book that will drop your jaws and leave it there—if you’ve been fortunate enough to live in a place where there is peace and harmony, the book will open your eyes to what’s happening in other parts of the world, and how countless others could not even sleep in their own beds with any certainty that they’d still wake up in the morning,” wrote Meghan.

“I don't think I have read such an engaging and emotionally charged autobiography in such a long time.

"Brotherly Enemies" is a wonderfully complex and highly enjoyable memoir that explores Elie Nakouzi's life from childhood to adulthood and all of the beauty, heartache, strife, success and tribulations that he's experienced along the way,” wrote R. Coker.

Calling the book “an eye-opening heartbreaker”, Ellen wrote: “This story, created and lived through by Elie Nakouzi, is one that should be a requirement for our kids in High School, across the country to read. It is completely different to hear about the sad and tragic war and violence over the news, but this man lived through it and he makes you feel as if you are there with him as you read his book.”

“This is a book that will affect you in many ways. It will fascinate you, it will inform you, and it will inspire you. I ordered the book expecting an interesting political read, but instead got a very heartfelt, personal story,” wrote Rich Blaisdell.

‘Brotherly Enemies’ is available now: http://amzn.to/1cuDd6A

About Elie Nakouzi
“Through my 25 years of journalism in the Middle East (before emigrating with my family to America), I have witnessed a lot. A lot of violence, madness, anger, and hypocrisy-which is a war in itself.

I was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised amidst a crazy civil war between Christians and Muslims... A war that split my country into 2, 3, or perhaps 17 countries. We just stopped counting!

Since my early childhood, I had questions; questions about Muslims, Christians, and of course, Jews. I simply fell in love with question marks, and ended up choosing a career that's not really the best choice, if you're living in the Middle East. Truths there are more brutal than cancer!

There's something else I hugely fell in love with while I was growing up: America. From my first Levi Jeans that my mother bought me, to Al Pacino, to John Travolta that we competed to replicate his dance moves, to Twain and Hemingway... and the love story still goes on. However, I early realized that perhaps there are 2 Americas; the one that makes us dream, and the one that kills, unintentionally I believe, our dreams.

I have bluntly embraced the American values since my first job in the radio. And quickly, I was accused of being a collaborator, an infidel, and an agent. I truly was not; I simply was pro American, from head to toes. I still am.

Memoirs of a Pro American will try to take you on a 'crazy' journey that starts in a little town in Beirut and ends here, in the USA, the land of my dreams. I hope my true story presents another perspective of what people watch in the news. Perhaps, if the Western world knew better the circumstances we live in, it would better understand why we, Arabs, stopped making sense, a long time ago.”