Venice Beach

He's 13 and alone on the streets of Los Angeles. It's 1968 and California is in ferment: war, drugs, revolution. Moon - as the boy renamed himself after fleeing his abusive home in the American heartland - finds his way to Venice Beach, the decadent epicenter of bohemian Los Angeles. Over the next two years he struggles with drugs, sexual orientation, insanity, old ghosts, and first loves as he assembles a makeshift family of fellow misfits. But as this family begins to crumble, Moon is blindsided by a discovery that upends his life's narrative. Venice Beach is a coming-of-age story like no other. "In this novel, a teenager comes of age under the most turbulent family circumstances... Habeeb's engaging novel skillfully explores the dark underbelly of growing up in an abusive household and trying to choose a new family. Moon's early life experiences are full of trauma and pain. 'When kids run away from home,' he reflects at the beginning of the book, 'people try to find them and send them back. It apparently never occurs to them that kids run away for a reason, and because running away is difficult and scary that reason must be a damn good one.' The author deftly concocts an emotionally tumultuous narrative with an array of misfits and outcasts who come together out of both necessity and love...Readers will root for the hero's success and safety. An engrossing tale about fighting for survival and finding love." -Kirkus Reviews