Privilege Lost

Many nice young upper-middle class white boys have dreamed about being the ultimate bad-ass.

Few have been forced to prove it.

For straight-A student and suburban Jewish boy Joshua Elyashiv, the dream of being tough and invincible, like his heroes Jason Bourne and Bruce Lee to name just a few, was so overwhelming that he convinced his parents to put him through military school where he became a decorated martial arts pro.

Then, through a fluke chain of events that Joshua never could have predicted, he was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison for a clerical error. After a brutal confrontation with a violent guard, the sentence was extended to five years, hard time.

Worst of all, his father cut off all contact.

For five relentless years, Joshua was forced to defend himself against some of the toughest, most ruthless men in the world.

Incredibly, he survived-and never gave up the desperate fight to prove to his father that he was innocent.

Even more incredibly, along the way, Joshua learned the true meaning of strength-inner and spiritual-and discovered that empathy, compassion, and knowing when to walk away from a conflict is the purest form of strength.

PRIVILEGE LOST is the true first-hand account of an "everyday nice guy" who had to fight for his life among some of the most violent and dangerous men alive, in some of the grimmest cages in the world. This gripping memoir explores the horrific violence he endured, traversing the bridge between adrenaline-pumping life and death moments and those deeply introspective agonies where Joshua came face to face with the reality behind his fantasies.

Along the way, he learned that true kindness can come from the most broken souls, and that so much of what we call justice is really just smoke and mirrors to protect those with power and privilege.

With humor and pathos, PRIVILEGE LOST looks across economic, cultural, racial, and religious boundaries with wide open eyes, confronting the harsh realities of a criminal justice system in deep need of reform.

Like Piper Kerman's Orange is the New Black, Susanna Kaysen's Girl Interrupted, and Avi Steinberg's Running the Books, PRIVILEGE LOST is a deeply personal memoir, with a message of survival and growth that so many can relate to.