As a young writer, David Shibli, was disaffected with his work and became homeless on the streets of New York City after gambling away his last few dollars and chasing a dream to be published.

It was thought that his last manuscript was lost forever but 21 years later it made its way back to author and he has now fulfilled his dream of publishing it.

The discarded pages had sat in the home of a family friend, Dave Pike for all those years and were rediscovered during a spring-cleaning.

Mr. David Shibli wrote The Cayman Conspiracy back in 1989 at the tender age of 24 when he was living at home in Uttoxeter, England.

Having confined himself to his bedroom, it took David around six months to write the novel, using an Amstrad CPC 464 that belonged to his brother. He explains that it was one of the first commercial word processors on the market that could only hold a chapter in memory.

Mr. Shibli followed his father to the Cayman Islands in the 1970’s and did the majority of his growing up here.

“I have memories of pure happiness as a child in the Cayman Islands. We need to preserve our identity and re-evaluate what we are losing,” said Mr Shibli.

He describes the time in his life when he wrote the book to be a point where he had lost the respect of those people who were near and dear to him and he had had enough. He had gambled all of his money away by travelling to Las Vegas any chance he got and had nothing left.

After spending 13 months in New York living homeless on the streets in and out of shelters trying to get the book published, David had given up all hope and thrown the book away.

“During this time, I resigned myself to the fact that I would never be a published author and quietly slid my copy of the manuscript into a garbage can in a homeless shelter.”

After his time living rough, Mr. Shiblli decided to get his life back on track and took steps to enter mainstream society again. He started by going back to university and obtaining a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bradford.

“I graduated from the University of Bradford second in my class and I also received first class honours degree. I came back to Cayman, got a very well paying job and started my own business.”

Surprisingly, the manuscript written 21 years prior, found its way back to the author in an almost “prophetic” reflection of modern Cayman society.

Mr. Shibli said “The book is prophetic in that we are supposedly as a nation, evaluating the introduction of Casino gambling exactly as mentioned in The Cayman Conspiracy.”

The book is a tale of Joe LeRice, an English expat, who has it all. A beautiful wife, a successful business and a peaceful life in the Cayman Islands and he enjoys the fruits of his labour. He is disturbed to learn that the world of casino gambling has cast its eye on the country he now calls home and that the politician who is pulling the strings is a realtor and also a big time gambler.

The Cayman Conspiracy is available to buy at The Book Nook.