Habib’s debut political thriller explores the nature of religious extremism, detailing the gathering threat it poses to America and its unsuspecting allies.
Purportedly based on a true story, this complex tale follows Samuel Joseph from his troubled, abuse-addled infancy in India to his prosperous adulthood in the United States. Samuel undergoes a youthful spiritual awakening, eventually converting from Islam to Christianity. His siblings’ fanatical commitment to killing non-Muslims leads to the endless, macabre abuse of Samuel, his mother and his wife. The narrative centers on a labyrinthine plot to destroy the U.S.—and much of the world—by inserting undetectable explosive devices into the breasts and buttocks of female suicide bombers as well as releasing a deadly virus through a variety of means. Threaded through this, Habib offers a quasi-journalistic account of the history of modern jihad, replete with scholarly reflections on the allegedly bellicose message of the Quran. Initially, readers may be impatient for the novel to begin, having waded through an opening prayer, a dedication, a foreword, a preface and an introduction. When it does kick off, the story leaps back and forth in time. The narrative occasionally addresses readers directly to provide commentary, entreat the U.S. government to foil the impending attack on its soil, or solicit help from readers in rescuing Samuel’s mother from her captors. The book is most effective when describing Samuel’s spiritual maturation as he discovers tolerance and love in a world darkened by contempt for difference. However, the remainder of the story is implausible and grindingly repetitive. Readers may find it difficult to stick around until the conclusion.
While timely, too far-fetched and erratic to maintain readers' attention.