Inadmissible—featured in Science Magazine—chronicles the unlikely story of a young Egyptian who emigrated to the U.S. in pursuit of the American dream, and how his one mistake—claiming to be a U.S. citizen in order to qualify for federal student loans—landed him behind bars along with some of America’s most notorious offenders, and slated him for immediate deportation upon the end of his prison term.

Five years later, however, the Egyptian student would earn his PhD from one of the finest scientific research universities in the U.S.—Caltech—only to find himself, once again, on the wrong end of the American justice system. Only this time the separation from his American daughter would be forever, as he remains in the eyes of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Inadmissible.

The memoir chronicles the flaws in the American justice system that mark felons for a lifetime of discrimination, and immigration laws that rip apart families and leave the most vulnerable—the children—without parents.

It’s an account of innocence and youth; of persistence and heartbreak; of unsuspecting underdogs and egotistical overlords. But ultimately it’s the true tale of one man’s journey, lived through believing in himself and believing in the good hearts of the people who stuck by him.