American Taliban

“When I glanced at the title, I thought I knew what I was getting into. I had no clue. American Taliban is so much more than just the story of an American kid who ends up joining the Taliban, and John Jude is a superb literary creation: the smart, generous, open minded teenager that every parent would be proud to raise. I found myself caring deeply for this eighteen-year-old, and thinking about him long after I’d closed the pages of this novel. Well-written to the point where you can’t put the damn thing down, American Taliban is empathetic, enlightening, and frightening all at once, a story that not only opens your eyes, but gives you ideas to learn from, viewpoints to argue with. It is a rare delight to be given a novel that actually makes you think. Rarer still to have a book utterly rip open your heart. American Taliban is that rarest of accomplishments, one that does both at the same time.”—Charles Bock, author of Beautiful Children

“In her new novel Pearl Abraham offers a wonderfully intimate portrait of how a more or less ordinary American boy might be seduced by the idea of submitting to Islam. The stages of John’s journey, and the many Muslims he meets along the way, are evoked in such vivid and persuasive detail that I felt I too was learning about the ancient wisdom of this complex culture. American Taliban is a fascinating and important novel.”—Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street


“Riveting and revealing, Pearl Abraham’s bottomless imagination has created an intellectual page-turner for our brave new world.”—Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan

“The author has taken a complex and volatile subject and brought it to a human scale, without compromising or trivializing the global importance of the issues raised. An incredible achievement; highly recommended.”—Library Journal