A woman in New York awakens knowing, as deeply as a mother's blood can
know, that her grown son is in danger. She has not heard from him in
weeks. His name is Jonas. His girlfriend, Vic, doesn't know what she has
done wrong, but Jonas won't answer his cell phone. We soon learn that
Jonas is isolated in a safe-house apartment in New York City, pondering
his conversion to Islam and his experiences training in Pakistan,
preparing for the violent action he has been instructed to take in 31
hours. Jonas's absence from the lives of those who love him causes a
cascade of events, and as the novel moves through the streets and
subways of New York we come to know intimately the lives of its
characters. We also learn to feel deeply the connections and
disconnections that occur between young people and their parents not
only in this country but in the Middle East as well.
Carried by Hamilton's highly-lauded prose, this story about the
helplessness of those who cannot contact a beloved young man who is on a
devastatingly confused path is compelling on the most human level. In
our world, when a family loses track of an idealistic son an entire city
could be in danger. From the author of The Distance Between Us.
