Daughter, Son, Assassin

by Steven Salaita

A story of family bonds amid political betrayal that explores the drastic steps that a young girl will take in order to find a sense of belonging. Fred is lost, confused, almost certainly about to die. As he traces his steps back from the desert where he has been dropped by soldiers of a repressive Gulf Kingdom regime, his nine-year-old daughter, Nancy, is doing the same from six thousand miles away in a quiet neighborhood in the suburbs of Washington, DC.  With his disappearance, she and her mother are forced to leave their comfortable house in DC for a new life in Virginia.  Abandoned by their friends and desperate for answers, Nancy and her mother must acclimate to the strange world of suburban anonymity. As Nancy grows into adulthood, she pieces together what happened to her father and devises a bold plan to avenge his disappearance.   Unraveling an international web of deceit in order to find her father will take time and patience; and becoming a cold-blooded assassin takes commitment to a life at odds with everything she knows. 

Genres: Fiction, Literature

208 pages, Paperback

Published May 14, 2024

About the author

I teach English at Virginia Tech and write about Arab Americans, Indigenous peoples, race and ethnicity, and literature. I live with my beloved wife, my half-blind bichon frise, and my nutty orange tabby in Blacksburg, Virginia. The little fellow in the picture with me is my son, Ignatius, the fiery one.

Reviews

[Val · Rating 5 out of 5]

BIG fan wow. love when nonfiction writers transition seamlessly into fiction. beautiful and complicated parental-child love. feels as if Nancy is telling me the story over a meal.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Because sometimes you have to choose between living and simply being alive. Do you see what I'm saying?"

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I liked the story even though it was a bit drawn out, but I have to wonder — did this book have an editor? Did the author have other people read it before publishing it?

There were a lot spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors, and lots of incorrect details that took me out of the story. The timeline was confusing: if Elena and Nancy arrived at UVA a year after the 2017 Unite the Right neo-nazi rally in Charlottesville, why are they constantly calling Twitter “X” in the story? Twitter didn’t change to X until 2023.

Why would Nancy, a lesbian woman, meet another woman on Grindr - an app exclusively for gay men? (lol) And the author has the classic men-writing-women disease and a tendency to use obscure vocabulary that in no way enriches the story.

But calling Gregory’s “an upscale coffee shop and juice bar” and the fact that Filomena was a plot point made me laugh.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t know it was possible to write a riveting novel (novella?) about the bougie self indulgent DC think tank scene AND parenting all at once but this book does it and does it so well. It is quite short and easy to read yet profound, although I do wish it went on. And I didn’t fully understand the ending. Still, 5 stars.

I’m learning I really like subversive stories of people who kill their oppressors and never get caught. (This isn’t a spoiler - assassin is in the name.)

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daughter, Son, Assassin by Steven Salaita is one of those books that immediately pulls you in. I was hooked from the beginning and found the alternating storylines between Nancy (the daughter) and Fred (the father) to be really compelling. The way their stories unfolded—sometimes overlapping, sometimes diverging—made it hard to put down.

It’s definitely a coming-of-age story, but not just for Nancy. Fred is also on a journey of identity and transformation, especially as he wrestles with the consequences of his past and what it means to be a parent. Their personal struggles are set against a backdrop of heavy political themes, which were thought-provoking and informative without feeling too forced. I actually learned a lot.

That said, the ending didn’t land as strongly for me. I was expecting a bigger or more complex payoff, and it just didn’t quite get there. But maybe that’s part of the point—some things don’t tie up neatly.

Overall, it’s a well-written, intriguing novel with some powerful reflections on identity, politics, and family. Not perfect, but definitely worth reading.

[Marcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delicious and delightful read from a brilliant mind! Salaita has crafted a masterful story that is equal parts gripping and smart. The best part is, perhaps, the ending - the fantasy of knowing that Nancy gets away with her assassination of the Kingdom's ambassador. There are also so many wonderful tidbits that seem resonant with Salaita's life - from bus driving to politics on college campuses both in the US and abroad.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to read Salaita's Wikipedia page after reading this. It makes so much sense.

Considering that he seems a bit out of touch with the youths (doesn't know what 'hotboxing' means or that women don't use Grindr), the book is still emotionally resonant.

Salaita did you secretly assassinate someone?? I promise I won't add it to your wikipedia

[Aleah Briarly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are very compelling and it's incredibly written. Such an amazing premise and I thought of Luigi Mangione a lot (even though I don't think he did it, and this was also written before the CEO killing happened).

[Gautam Bhatia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve known of Steven Salaita for many years: indeed, from the time that he lost his academic job for his pro-Palestinian stand, was hounded out of academia, became a school-bus driver, and eventually found his way to the American University in Cairo. I read every word he wrote for its moral and ethical clarity and its unbending courage. So when I heard he’d published his debut novel, I bought it immediately.

If you’ve read Salaita’s non-fiction, Daughter, Son, Assassin will feel like a seamless transition. It moves between a man who has been left for dead in the desert of a nameless Middle-Eastern Kingdom known only as “the Kingdom” (it is obviously Saudi Arabia) by its secret police, after a previously friendly arrangement between them turned sour (think, “a case of conscience”); and, many years later, his daughter, growing up in Virginia/DC, who seeks for the truth of her father’s disappearance, and then, revenge for it. The novel has all the themes that Salaita has been preoccupied with: complicity and courage, direct and hidden violence, and the ruthlessness of power. The staccato shifts in point of view might be a little challenging at first, but you get used to them quite quickly.