When people hear that my first book is inspired by my own life, the first question is often: "So it's your autobiography?"
It isn't. The Journey Between Two Continents is a novel inspired by true events, and that choice was deliberate.
Not to settle scores
I didn't write this book to blame anyone or to settle old scores. Every life holds lessons, and I felt mine were too precious to keep to myself. A novel let me share those lessons while protecting the real people who shaped them. Names are changed, and some events are reimagined, but the feelings are true.
Room to tell the truth
Fiction gave me freedom. As Sam, my main character, I could follow the questions that mattered most: What do we owe our parents? What do we carry from home? What happens when a dream career and a promise pull in opposite directions?
What the book is about
Sam grows up in a village in Kerala, becomes an aerospace engineer, refuses to build weapons, and gives up a dream job to keep a promise to his father. That promise leads him to Lourdes. Along the way there is love, loss, faith, and the courage to begin again.
Who it's for
If one reader finds strength in Sam's journey, especially someone far from home or missing a parent, the book will have done what I hoped.