The Bastard of Beverly Hills: A Memoir

Raised in Los Angeles, California, by a Sephardic family from the Isle of Rhodes, Rafael Moscatel spent the first thirty years of his life in relative darkness, unaware that he'd been given up for adoption. A long, winding, emotional journey back home, not to four walls but to a place he could finally feel comfortable in his own skin, forced him to examine his sordid past through a sobering and heartbreaking lens. His amusing yet often tragic struggles with abandonment, addiction, and faith, recounted first in a documentary about his biological kin and now in a new memoir about his adopted family, remind us all of our spiritual strength and serve as a testament to the power of hope, forgiveness, and redemption.