Godsend

It's hard to imagine that a story about a young American woman leaving her home for jihad in Afghanistan could be so muted and quiet - yet Wray has written a book which is filled with intensity and yet sidesteps all the tabloid sensationalism that often accrues to this topic. Balancing a coming-of-age story with its Afghan setting takes skill and Wray never makes a wrong move.

I don't want to say much about the plot but this is a masterful study in empathy for a protagonist whose shining idealism leads her down some dark pathways. There are questions subtly posed about to what extent Aden Grace makes choices, and how her options might be circumscribed.

The setting of Afghanistan just before 9/11 (which happens offstage during the story) is also rendered with acute detail: not least in the tensions between the Afghan Pashtuns and the wealthy sponsors of jihad from outside the country.

This is a lean tale but with searching depth, and the writing is elegant and precise. An extraordinary book, then - I can't believe I hadn't heard of Wray before this.

A Young Lady Aden from California against the wishes of her separated parents heads to Pakistan to join the Jihad with her friend Decker who organised the journey. As a concert to Islam her intentions are for a greater understanding and purpose in what she believed. The other thing you need to know she as agreed with Decker pretends to be a he and It is set in the same year as 9/11

As a white British Christian who has spent time in Pakistan before 9)11 i was greatly interested in seeing some of the culture and lives of these characters but mindful this is a novel and not real life but a closer view than i would get off this kind of life.

I guess that those who have a strong faith or belief whatever the background or faith will be prepared to push boundaries for the greater good of what we believe and the convictions as in this case with Aden the courage from their fight. I can only admire the convictions if not the way it is followed through and obviously my believe it's in a different faith but the GOD of Adam, And Abraham. I know there are crossovers or i believe this to be so and have a friendship with a good number of Muslims some more committed than others. But I'm reviewing the book not my understanding of the issues but it is why was I to read this book. From my standpoint I found this well written and believable novel the characters very real and the situations Aden found herself in I could believe to being possible..
I recommend this book to you are hope you read it and get a insight to a different lifestyle or may be one you revise our have heard of. I believe strongly in peace and Prayer over guns and weapons as i know many in these two faiths do as well.

On a journalistic assignment for Esquire magazine, John Wray travelled to Afghanistan to meet people who had known or met John Walker Lindh. Lindh was the American who joined the Taliban and who was captured by US forces in December 2001. While in Afghanistan, Wray heard rumours of another American who had joined the conflict on the opposite side and some said it was a woman, perhaps even a girl.

This is the starting point for Wray’s new novel. It is set in the second half of that year, a period which everyone knows as the time of 9/11.

Aden Grace Sawyer is a teenage American girl who has recently converted to Islam and who heads away from a dysfunctional family life to Pakistan. She travels with Decker, her sort-of-boyfriend who is an American of Pashtun origin. She is fiercely committed to her new faith, perhaps, even to the point of being over-zealous. In the very first section of the novel we read:

“Some kids from school walked by and snickered, and she allowed herself, for the last time, the luxury of picturing them dead.”

This is the first hint of the darkness that lies ahead, although it does not start to really make itself known until the halfway point.

Aden, on leaving the US, takes care to disguise her gender. She bandages her breasts and has taught herself to speak in a deeper voice. She believes she needs to pass as a boy to achieve her goals. She cuts all ties with her former life, even to the point of destroying her passport and begins to live as Suleyman, a young man.

Aden’s stated aim in Pakistan is to attend a madrassa and to learn about her new found faith. However, once she reaches Pakistan, the book, which starts like a coming of age story, takes a much darker turn. The madrassa is in Peshawar which, as someone notes, is very close to the border with Afghanistan and very soon we are in a world of war and conflict.

The book is a fascinating read. Wray writes very sensitively, sympathetically and subtly about religious beliefs. He gives us a rarely seen glimpse of “the other side” as an American writing about 9/11 as seen from Afghanistan (“What does that matter to us?” one man says, “What happens in America is no concern of ours” says another). He is not afraid to write in an ambiguous way where, for a few pages, the reader is left wondering what just happened until, a bit later, the pieces fall into place and it becomes clear: for a while the reader is on tenterhooks wondering what exactly Aden or someone else has just done. He also writes in a deceptively allusive way about, for example, what it is like to be a victim of a drone attack.

So, whilst it is sometimes a bit difficult to suspend disbelief for so long (could someone really go so long pretending to be a man without being discovered when living as part of an army of men), somehow that does not matter because it is the story that matters here and that is a powerful one well worth reading.

The review here in The New Yorker is well worth taking the time to read (probably after rather than before you read the book): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/the-911-novel-that-finally-understands-the-fulfillments-of-faith.

It is very strong subject matter.
An American woman who leaves her home to go to Afghanistan.
You would expect it to be a quite understated novel yet the author has not allowed that to happen, which for me as a reader is a very brave and yet great thing to do.
It is deep, raw, emotional
I found it at times pretty tough to read yet I was intrigued to find out how it ends
Thank you to both NetGalley and Canongate Books for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

Lost amongst her family in America-disappointed by an alcoholic mother and an unfaithful father-Aden Grace Sawyer is hoping to find answers and a sense of belonging amongst her Muslim brothers. And so, alongside her friend and sometime beau, she travels to the Middle East and immediately disguises herself as a boy (Suleyman) so that she may worship, study and fight.
Evidently her boyish beauty, American accent, burnt passport and remarkable feeling for scripture set her apart but; "She was hidden by her clear and perfect strangeness. Her strangeness was itself a burqa that withheld her likeness from them."
For a while, at least, she seems to find what she is looking for and she immerses herself in the discipline and training required to become a fighter. She feels herself purer in faith and a valued component in a devout campaign; "The escarpment rose before her and her breath aspired toward Heaven and the world in all its failings lay behind her on the plain."
Inevitably, her travels fail to bring her the unanimity she so desires as her journey spirals into violence and her concealment is increasingly difficult to maintain.

I found Wray's book both absorbing and fascinating. I read about Aden's successes and progress with a horrified mixture of desire for her to find that which she so yearned and a desperate hope that she would fail before she lost any last vestiges of her fragile and misguided self. Of course, no good could come from her quest and thoughts about where she is now left to turn are unanswered. It was alarming to find myself understanding her plight and how easily young impassioned people may be persuaded. She is looking for certainty and when her Jihad does not deliver that either, I found myself sympathetic; "All her life lay behind her, every day, every hour, bright and irrevocable and fixed. She saw it so clearly. Ahead was starlit blackness."

Perhaps it was not necessary for Wray to have his protagonist as a disguised female as the tale offers . plenty to think about without any further complication, but overall a memorable and thought-provoking read.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you.