David Brown
David John, an illegal alien pursuing the American dream in breach of U.S. immigration law is involved in a controversial murder that ends in his own murder.
David comes to the United States from Africa to head the New York office of an African based television company. But when the project is crippled by lack of finance, he decides to stay on even after the expiration of his visa. David’s lifelong desire for the American dream inspires him to believe that somehow providence would provide a way out of his illegal status. He joins the millions of illegal aliens living in the shadows of the U.S. immigration law.
But when David gets his first job in a gas station, he chokes a teenage robber to death by accident. A terrified David, sees his American dream disappearing into the prison walls of death. He becomes a fugitive offender on the run from the law. He seeks refuge with a long lost childhood friend and soccer star, Segun Idemudia, in Newark, New Jersey, hundreds of miles away from the scene of his crime in Arlington, Texas.
In Newark, David begins a new life, keeping close to his chest the untold secret of his past. He falls in love and marries Jennifer Tomson, an American woman, who bears him a daughter. But a relentless manhunt by the police leads to his arrest two years after the murder in Texas. An explosive murder trial ends with his acquittal.
David is not to savor life in his American oasis of dreams after his freedom. Peeved by the court verdict, Patrick Donover, an Iraqi war hero and elder brother of the murdered teenager decides to take the law into his hands. He unloads the fatal bullets that cut short David’s life.
David Brown is a pseudonym for Matthias Igbarumah, a writer born 49 years ago in Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa. Matthias trained as a journalist and had contributed stories to various media organizations including the CNN International. He holds a first degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos in Nigeria and did his post-graduate degree in Political Economy and Development Studies at the University of Jos, also in Nigeria. He was Assistant General Manager, News, Africa Independent Television, a Nigerian based satellite television station, before coming to America.
His book, Dying For The American Dream, is a story about the travails of an undocumented African immigrant, David John, pursuing the American dream in breach of U.S. immigration law. In his zealous pursuit of the dream, David commits murder and pays the ultimate price with his life.
Dying For The American Dream is the first novel to be written on the legal quagmire facing illegal aliens, estimated to be more than 12 million in the United States. It is the first novel by the writer, who draws inspiration for writing the book from his experience living with African immigrants in the U.S.
Matthias Igbarumah is currently living in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Dying For The American Dream is the first novel to chronicle the difficult alternatives facing illegal aliens that yearn to live in the U.S in breach of immigration laws.
The novel is about David John, an African immigrant obsessed with achieving the American dream. He also wanted to become an American hero. But at his first job in a gas station, he accidentally choked a teenage robber to death in a bid to thwart a robbery operation. That’s when he crossed the line from hero to murderer.
Terrified by the result of his action, David, an illegal alien, became a fugitive offender on the run from the law. But a manhunt by the police finally caught up with him, two years after the murder, in Newark, New Jersey, hundreds of miles away from the scene of the crime in Arlington, Texas. An explosive legal battle led to his acquittal. But David was not to savor life in his American oasis of dreams. His life was cut short by a bullet from a formidable adversary at war with the jury verdict.
Dying For The American Dream, is a story which stretches across two continents, Africa and America, and shatters the lives of two individuals: David John, an African, who came to America but was involved in a controversial murder that ended with his own murder, and Jennifer Tomson, his American wife, who bore him a daughter and was looking up to a blissful married life with her soon to be embattled husband.
The author, a journalist with more than twenty years working experience in Africa, has contributed stories to the CNN International World Report. Dying For The American Dream is partly based on the author’s experience living with African immigrants in the United States.
The target audience for Dying For The American Dream are people fascinated by the immigration question and readers that want to know what it really means to be an illegal alien. Dying For The American Dream is unique because it deals with the raw impact of the United States immigration system on the life of an illegal alien. Like an albatross, this legal quagmire defines the life of the illegal alien, from the day he sets his foot on American soil until the tragic end of his life.
