The Ambassador's Son: A Novel, Inspired by True Events

The Ambassador’s Son is a novel written in the style of a memoir, and as a tribute to the author’s beloved father. The story opens with eight year-old Rudi Rahmani in 1954 watching his parents and their friends at the Lebanese embassy in Mexico City play poker. Young Rudi is enchanted and the seeds are planted for a lifelong struggle with gambling. Two years later, and set against the unfolding unrest in the Middle East, Rudi’s family is drawn into Egypt’s conflicts of the mid 1950s, with Nasser’s henchmen confiscating the wealth of affluent families. Ambassador Rahmani is asked to smuggle wealth out of Egypt by many. He refuses all, except for the Pasha, patriarch of the Zaki family. For him he dangerously uses the diplomatic pouch, entwining the two families for the next three decades. The two families relocate to London where Rudi and the Pasha’s son Omar become best friends, both graduating from eminent universities, and both getting their first taste of gambling, emulating their parents. They then go their separate way for awhile, Omar in New York working in real estate with his father, and Rudi in Kuwait managing a wealthy sheik’s business. The Pasha pays back the Rahmanis in innumerable ways and, a few years later, recruits Rudi to come together with Omar in New York in a business venture in the elder care field. Rudi meets the love of his life, a South African woman named Anna. She becomes instrumental in Rudi’s operations in the thriving homecare industry. And while the business grows exponentially, the trips to Vegas persist, and the twin demons of losses and deceit plague Rudi and Omar. Tragedies unfold. The enigmatic Pasha dies and Anna is killed in a car crash in South Africa. Despite Rudi’s desolation and soul searching, the gambling continues. Years later, Rudi disentangles himself from Omar who must sell the business to cover gambling losses. The story culminates in two parts, the first saving his father from merciless kidnappers in war-ravaged Beirut, and the second finally conquering his addiction to gambling. In this tribute to family and as a final ode to his father, Rudi helps his parents resettle in the United States. The Ambassador gives back to his son in kind, supporting Rudi and others in the process of leaving gambling behind by finding another passion in life, an activity that when nurtured, replaces what each must give up in order to thrive.