Gabe Galambos

Gabe Galambos was born in Hungary to Holocaust survivor parents. In 1956 the family escaped Hungary in the midst of the Hungarian Uprising, and they later settled in Brookline, Massachusetts. Upon graduation from Brandeis University, Gabe moved to Israel - made Aliyah - and joined the Israel Defense Forces, where he served part of his stint in an elite unit. In 1983, while working on a Masters Degree at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, the American Association for Ethiopian Jewry (AAEJ) sent Gabe to Sudan to assist in the clandestine rescue of Jews fleeing Ethiopia. While in southern Sudan, Gabe and a fellow AAEJ worker were captured and interned in the notoriously wretched Juba city prison. Later under house arrest, they managed to escape through the bush to Zaire, where they were detained before being turned back over to Sudanese custody. After several additional weeks in the Juba city prison and a Khartoum jail, they ultimately were released when members of the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee interceded on their behalf.

Gabe's experiences - and his travels in Hungary, England, Spain and the former Soviet Union - provided source material for his first novel, Stealing Pike's Peak, a globe-hopping political thriller. Further travel, particularly to the Azorean islands, was of great benefit in his researching "the people of the Nation," those mysterious people at the heart of his second novel, The Nation by the River. Gabe presented his Azorean research for the annual conference of The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies in Albuquerque, and he has also taken part in Road Scholar's educational travel program, New Mexico's Conversos and Crypto-Jews.

When not writing and traveling, Gabe's other big interest is following the Boston sports teams. In particular, he is an avid New England Patriots fan. Visit Gabe at www.gabegalambos.com