Mehdi Akbary

Breaking Free Mehdi Akbary

Entrepreneur Mehdi Akbary is visiting his wife's family in Afghanistan when an explosion sets the world on fire. For Mehdi, it is like reliving a memory. He travels back in his mind to his early childhood in a village in central Afghanistan.



Mehdi faces hardship from the first second he enters the world. He is paralyzed from the waist down and can only crawl and hobble. The neighborhood Mullah tells his parents that it is God's will and any attempt to correct the problem would be blasphemy. Mehdi, undeterred, learns to walk by the age of seven. Unfortunately, his challenges are far from over.



Mehdi and his family attempt to flee the growing violence in the area. The van carrying most of his immediate family is attacked, and seven of his relatives, including his mother, die. Witnessing the explosion decades later, he flashes back to this one defining moment in his life and traces his journey from poverty in Afghanistan to financial success in Canada.



In this vivid new memoir, Mehdi Akbary shows how he honors his family by trying his hardest in everything he does, as his ambition and perseverance take him on adventures all around the world.