Matt Ruff

In the summer of 2009, Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi is plunged into a deadly conspiracy involving gangster Suddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, when a captured suicide bomber claims that the world in which they live is a mirage. 40,000 first printing.

A Novel

The Mirage

Jay Carter

The book flips history on its side and puts 9/11 as happening in the United Arab States instead of the USA. One value of the book was helping you imagine what life is like for the people of Iraq by having the post-tragedy invasion happen in America. I also enjoyed the little cultural asides; example: the TV show "24/7 Jihad" whose anti-terrorist hero Jafar Bashir lives out one 24-hour day each season. Ultimately, your enjoyment of the book will depend on whether you buy into the explanation of how this history aligns with ours. I bought it but I prefer something a little more down to earth.

Stefan Ladstätter-Thaa

Arun Seehra

Zoey Mikalatos

Jon Noronha

Seth Engelhard

Kevin Bertolero

A mind-bending novel in which an alternate history of 9/11 and its aftermath uncovers startling truths about America and the Middle East 11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers. The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C. . . . Summer, 2009: Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured suicide bomber. The prisoner claims that the world they are living in is a mirage—in the real world, America is a superpower, and the Arab states are just a collection of "backward third-world countries." A search of the bomber's apartment turns up a copy of The New York Times, dated September 12, 2001, that appears to support his claim. Other captured terrorists have been telling the same story. The president wants answers, but Mustafa soon discovers he's not the only interested party. The gangster Saddam Hussein is conducting his own investigation. And the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee—a war hero named Osama bin Laden—will stop at nothing to hide the truth. As Mustafa and his colleagues venture deeper into the unsettling world of terrorism, politics, and espionage, they are confronted with questions without any rational answers, and the terrifying possibility that their world is not what it seems. Acclaimed novelist Matt Ruff has created a shadow world that is eerily recognizable but, at the same time, almost unimaginable. Gripping, subversive, and unexpectedly moving, The Mirage probes our deepest convictions and most arresting fears.

Christian-Rolf Grün

Ben Nathan

Marie C-D

The Mirage A Novel

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