Hardback: "Off The Deep End is my story - at least as much of it as I can see from where I'm standing - and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share it. I hope by the end of it, you'll see me less as a 'pool boy' and more as a flawed human who is trying to reclaim his identity and his dignity. Perhaps, too, this will serve as a cautionary tale for those of us who fall prey to the powerful and the influential. This is my path, and so to the extent that my story is bigger than I am, I've tried to render it faithfully." - Giancarlo Granda
Giancarlo Granda was just out of high school and working as a pool attendant at Miami's fabled Fontainebleau Hotel in 2012 when he was propositioned by a charming middle-aged woman. There was one catch. Her husband wanted to watch.
On a lark, Giancarlo, who at twenty years old had never had a steady girlfriend, agreed to the rendezvous. What he did not know at that moment was that the woman's name was Becki Falwell, and her husband was the eldest son and namesake of the founder of the Moral Majority, heir to his evangelical dynasty, and president and chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, the largest religious university in the world.
Granda also did not know that his life would change irrevocably. The lapse in judgment opened a decade-long portal into a parallel universe of institutional religion and take-no-prisoners politics, illicit sex photos, seven-figure real estate deals, crony capitalism, crisis managers, and charlatans.
Moreover, it lit a long and winding fuse that has now seen Falwell forced to resign as president of Liberty, calls for a congressional inquiry, and perhaps, most startlingly, a wave of female Liberty students and alleged victims of sexual assault who claim that the university both facilitated the violence against them and discouraged them from seeking justice.
Off The Deep End (2022) is Giancarlo's story, in his own words, a morality tale of finding strength and resilience in the face of profound hypocrisy.
About the authors: The proud son of immigrant parents from Cuba and Mexico, Giancarlo Granda was born and raised in Miami, and currently resides in the District of Columbia metro area. He is active in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai communities, and enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing, weightlifting, gaming, and time well spent with friends and family. He recently received his Master of Professional Studies in Real Estate Finance and Development degree from Georgetown University.
Mark Ebner is a New York Times bestselling author, and an award-winning investigative journalist.
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