"Al Dufdaa Al Nari" translated from "Firebelly" by J.C. Michaels is..... a journey into the heart of thinking.. I can live wild and free on the brink of adventure or safe and secure never afraid or cold. The choice alone immobilizes me. "An engaging and quirky view of philosophy" - Kirkus. "Simple language, elegant structure, engaging wit" - Writers Notes Magazine. "Enjoyable as a tale, mind-stretching as an allegory". Book Pleasures. J.C. Michaels: WRITING FIREBELLY: I am often asked about the origin of the story and ideas behind Firebelly. While the book clearly draws from the work of writers connected with a strain of philosophy known as existentialism, the heart of this story begins with something much more simple: a frog. My daughter was very intrigued by the firebelly frogs she had seen at the pet store. (These animals are also referred to as toads). One day, I offered to buy her one as a present. She selected her frog from about a dozen others. We also bought an aquarium, gravel, and some crickets. When we arrived home and placed her new pet into the container, I suddenly noticed he was missing two feet. Although my initial reaction was to exchange him for one that was unblemished, my daughter insisted otherwise. ‘Who else would care for a frog with only two feet?’ We kept him and named her new pet Missing Pieces, MP for short. As many children of divorce experience, my daughter spent time traveling between both her mom’s home and mine. When I had the opportunity to take a six week trek to Kangenjunga in Nepal, my daughter and her mom agreed to take care of MP. When transporting her frog, he somehow escaped from his container and became lost in a rental car, which I happened to be using. No matter where we looked or what we did to entice him out of hiding, he could not be found. The day I left, my daughter was upset and crying, I was feeling sad and negligent, and the car needed to be returned. As my daughter said good-bye to both me and her frog, I told her I would write a story about how her lost pet might suddenly appear for the next driver and change someone’s life. On my trip to Nepal, I brought a handheld computer, a miniature keypad and numerous, lightweight titanium batteries. On the second week of the trek, as I sat in my tent staring across a huge glacial valley at the north face of the spectacular peak known as Mount Jannu, I began to write the story of how something small and insignificant could do something grand and marvelous. When I returned to the United States, I put aside a novel I was writing and began completing her short story. I soon realized that Firebelly could support a very interesting and complex journey into the ideas of choice, responsibility, and being in the world. This short story soon became a novel built upon ideas from some of the 19th and 20th century’s most influential philosophers. As world-wide interest continues to grow in Firebelly, this small and seemingly insignificant lost frog has indeed been transformed into something greater than anyone could ever have imagined.