Kickstarter
Before the book reaches the stores, it reaches its first readers. The Kickstarter campaign lets you stand beside it from the start.
Backers help bring the book into the world. Rewards and dates are listed on the campaign page.
A memoir by Mohamed Zerouali Omari
From the Ashes and the Snow
A Story of Survival, Love, Loss, and Hope
Out
Time until publication: 0 days 0 hours 0 minutes
The boy who left his father to build a life in America became the father who had to leave his daughter.
The book
Every river remembers its source
Every river remembers its source. His began in Casablanca, in a father’s blessing whispered three times at an airport. It carried a boy across an ocean, through hardship and doubt, to the doors of the world he had dreamed of since he was a child. It carried him through a September morning that turned the sky to ash, and through a winter night when the sky turned white and a daughter was born. Then the river fell.
From the Ashes and the Snow is the story of a man who built a life twice and lost it once, told the way a trader reads the world: one candle at a time, from despair to hope. It is a memoir of survival, love, loss, and faith, and a father’s letter to the daughter he has not held in years.
A river does not stop because it meets a rock. It finds its way to the sea.
- Format
- Paperback, 6 × 9 in, color interior · Kindle ebook
- Length
- 513 pages
- Publication
The journey
Five places on one river
-
1974–1993
Casablanca
A boy learns the sea, the city, and the weight of a father’s hope.
-
1993–2001
New York
Two suitcases, one dream, and a city that does not wait for anyone.
-
2001
The Towers
A September morning he has carried every day since.
-
2004–2009
The Marriage
A home built with care, and a winter night that filled it with light.
-
2009–2010
The War and the Surrender
Some battles do not end in victory. They end in a choice.
The candles
A life read one candle at a time
A trader reads a day as a candle. Where it opened. Where it closed. How high it reached. How low it fell.
This book reads a life the same way. Every chapter is a candle on a scale from 0, despair, to 100, hope. Green when the chapter ends higher than it began. Red when it ends lower.
A day of arrival Closes higher
- Open
- Fear, held quietly
- High
- Wonder at a new skyline
- Low
- Doubt, late at night
- Close
- Resolve
A long winter Closes lower
- Open
- Hope, still steady
- High
- A call that almost changes everything
- Low
- Silence
- Close
- Weariness
Starting again Closes higher
- Open
- Caution
- High
- The first real laugh in months
- Low
- An old fear, returning
- Close
- Quiet strength
A day of loss Closes lower
- Open
- An ordinary morning
- High
- Calm, for a moment
- Low
- Disbelief
- Close
- Grief
The letter
The book ends with a letter from a father to his child. It has no chart. No open, no close, no high, no low. It is the one candle that is not measured.
Green: ends higher than it began Red: ends lower White: not measured
Read the first pages
Begin where the book begins
Early readers
What readers say
-
[REVIEW PLACEHOLDER — real quote only, with permission]
— [Name, publication or role]
The author
Mohamed Zerouali Omari
Mohamed Zerouali Omari was born in Casablanca in 1974, in a bear market. At nineteen, he crossed the Atlantic with two suitcases and a dream of Wall Street. He survived September 11 and built a career in finance, from Wall Street to KPMG to the Casablanca Stock Exchange. Today he is the General Manager of a company that equips leading medical institutions in Morocco and Africa. He lives in Casablanca. This is his first book.
About the cover
Between two skies
The man on the cover stands in a winter street, between two skies. Above him, the towers burn on a September morning, already dark, already a memorial. Around him, snow falls as it fell on the night his daughter was born. The image is impossible on purpose: those two days were more than seven years apart. But in his life they were never separate.
Ash and snow fall together because the morning that took so much and the night that gave him everything belong to the same story. Behind the towers, the city dissolves into fog, the way memory does. In front of him, the street stays lit.
He has his back to us because the story is not finished, and because the reader’s place is beside him: looking at what he survived, and toward what he still hopes for.
Support and pre-order
Help the river reach the sea
Paperback and Kindle
On Amazon from . Other stores will follow.
- Paperback · coming soon
- Kindle · coming soon
Join the readers
Be the first to know when the book is out
One email at launch. A few more when there is something worth saying. Nothing else.
Contact
Write to the author
For readers, press, and invitations to speak. Every message is read.
Or write directly to author@fromtheashesandthesnow.com.