Ishmael Beah is New York’s latest local to become a national celebrity. In the last three months Beah, the 26-year-old, best-selling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, has been a guest on “The Daily Show” and appeared on VH-1. He has been profiled in every major newspaper and even modeled Armani jackets for Playboy.com. Beah, who lives in Brooklyn, says people now recognize him on the street. “It’s quite weird,” Beah told a New School journalism class in February. “I didn’t think so many people would be interested in my story.”

Indeed, people are interested—enough so that A Long Way Gone has been on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best-Seller List since its debut in February. At that time, Starbucks unexpectedly chose the memoir to be featured in their fledgling book program, where it would be sold in more than 6,500 of their stores across the country. When the memoir rose to the No. 1 spot on the charts last month, Starbucks took out a full-page ad in the Times congratulating their new poster boy.

It is no surprise that A Long Way Gone has done so well. Beah’s account of the years he spent fighting as a boy soldier in the civil war of his native Sierra Leone is both gripping and poignant. The tales of his cocaine-fueled killing sprees have all the suspense and action of a Hollywood blockbuster, while his subsequent rehabilitation offers the redemption that would make it the feel-good movie of the year. But that is exactly what Beah doesn’t want.

“I don’t want anyone to make a sappy Hollywood movie,” Beah said, criticizing Blood Diamond as having “cheapened” the story of his homeland’s turmoil.

Considering that the book’s graphic descriptions of child-on-child slaughter and charred corpses may have turned customers away, it is interesting that Starbucks picked Beah’s memoir for their fledgling book program. What’s even more interesting than the alliance between the sterile coffee retailer and Beah is how their association helped propel him to become a darling of the media. If you look at the other top 10 authors currently on the non-fiction best-seller list, you’ll notice many familiar names. None of them, however, have received as much hype as Beah. Except one:

Barack Obama.

Aside from having the two coolest names on the list, Obama and Beah share one other thing in common—their race. America, like many countries, still has a long way to go in terms of overcoming its racism. But it’s a sign of how far we’ve already come when white America so enthusiastically embraces two men of color—especially when one is running for president and the other claims to have killed more people than he can count.

Just as Obama’s biggest backers are rich white men, Beah’s audiences at local readings are almost entirely Caucasian. What’s behind this interracial love affair? Is it because they are articulate and well educated? Maybe. Is it because they both have such winning smiles and aren’t physically threatening? That may have something to do with it, too. Or do white people like Beah and Obama because they have seemingly integrated themselves so well into the mainstream? That’s probably a bigger factor than anyone will ever admit.

But the biggest reason that Obama and Beah have been put up on a prime-time pedestal has less to do with the color of their skin than what they represent. They embody the American Dream. Born without privilege, each rose from the bottom and cultivated inherent talent to rise above the rest. They inspire us to fulfill our potential.

Beah and Obama also repeatedly remind us, with their words and also by the example their lives have set, to never give up hope. Maintaining hope in the face of adversity—among other things—is the theme of both of their books. Beah’s story, though, is a bit more compelling. Beah morphed from a poor village boy to grim reaper to UNICEF ambassador to best-selling author in little more than a decade. His life proves that, with hope, anything is possible.

This is the message we are hungry to hear. And when Beah delivers it, we believe him. 

Beah will read from A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier May 9, The Studio Museum of Harlem (144 W. 125th St., betw. Lenox & 7th Aves.) before crossing the Atlantic next week for his European book tour.