"I think we got off on the wrong foot, with you telling me I had to be
killed and then me getting all upset about it. Let's start again. My
name is Jameela, and I'm a writer. What do you do, besides . . .
assassinations? Is that a hobby or more of a full-time thing?"
Jameela Green has only one wish: to see her memoir on the New York Times
bestseller list. When that doesn't work out, she decides that her best
next step is to make a deal with God, so she heads over to her local
mosque. The idealistic new imam, Ibrahim Sultan, is appalled by
Jameela's shallowness but agrees to assist her, on one condition--that
she perform a good deed.
Jameela reluctantly accepts his terms, kicking off a series of
unfortunate events. The homeless man they try to help gets recruited by
a terrorist group, causing federal authorities to become suspicious of
Ibrahim. When the imam mysteriously disappears, Jameela is certain that
the CIA has captured her new friend for interrogation and possibly
torture.
Despite having no talent for this sort of thing, Jameela decides to set
off on a one-woman operation to rescue him. Her quest soon lands her at
the center of an international plan targeting the leader of the
terrorist organization--a scheme that puts Jameela and count-less
others, including her hapless husband and clever but disapproving
daughter, at risk.
A no-holds-barred satire about the international cost of the American
Dream, Jameela Green Ruins Everything is a compulsively readable, darkly
comedic, yet unexpectedly touching story of one woman's search for
meaning and connection.