Author: johnwray

Inspired by the story of John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” Whiting Award-winning author John Wray explores the circumstances that could impel a young American to abandon identity and home to become an Islamist militant. Like many other eighteen-year-olds, Aden Sawyer is intently focused on a goal: escape from her hometown. Her plan will take her far from her mother’s claustrophobic … claustrophobic house, where the family photos have all been turned to face the wall; far from the influence of her domineering father–a professor of Islamic studies–and his new wife. Aden’s dream, however, is worlds removed from conventional fantasies…