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Godsend
Inspired by the story of John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” the 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 house, where the family photos have all been turned to face the wall, and 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 of teen rebellion: she is determined to travel to Peshawar, Pakistan, to study Islam at a madrassa. To do so, she takes on a new identity, disguising herself as a young man named Suleyman. Aden fully commits to this new life, even burning her passport to protect her secret. But once she is on the ground, she finds herself in greater danger than she could possibly have imagined. Faced with violence, disillusionment, and loss, Aden must make choices that will test not only her faith but also her most fundamental understanding of who she is, and that will set her on a wild, brutal course toward redemption by blood. John Wray’s Godsend is an enduring coming-of-age novel.
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 house, where the family photos have all been turned to face the wall, and 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 of teen rebellion: she is determined to travel to Peshawar, Pakistan, to study Islam at a madrassa. To do so, she takes on a new identity, disguising herself as a young man named Suleyman. Aden fully commits to this new life, even burning her passport to protect her secret. But once she is on the ground, she finds herself in greater danger than she could possibly have imagined. Faced with violence, disillusionment, and loss, Aden must make choices that will test not only her faith but also her most fundamental understanding of who she is, and that will set her on a wild, brutal course toward redemption by blood. John Wray’s Godsend is an enduring coming-of-age novel.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published October 9, 2018
70 people are currently reading
1950 people want to read
About the author
John Wray
34 books180 followersJohn Wray is the author of five critically acclaimed novels, Godsend, The Lost Time Accidents, Lowboy, The Right Hand of Sleep and Canaan's Tongue. He was named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists in 2007. The recipient of a Whiting Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives in Brooklyn and Mexico City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 110 reviews
March 23, 2019
This is such an important book: it addresses so many of the problems we are facing as a young generation is looking to connect with individuals who want to take advantage of their desire for change. We look through the eyes of someone who is trying to find true meaning while surrounded by a world adrift - and when an anchor is provided it is taken. Aden Sawyer disguises herself as a young man (Suleyman Al-Na'ama) to study Islam at a madrasa in Peshawar, Pakistan. With her boyfriend (Decker) she makes the journey that she believes will give her the answers she so ardently seeks. But the path to finding yourself is often detoured with many dead ends. John Wray takes us down this path and forces us to question our answers on this hotly debated global issue - highly recommended.
January 20, 2019
“The beauty of austerity. The beauty of no quarter. She felt its pull and saw no earthly end to it.”
“She’d hoped for grace and dignity and unity of purpose.”
John Wray’s compelling novel focuses on the physical and spiritual journey of an 18-year-old American girl, Aden Grace Sawyer. Initially, Aden travels from San Francisco to a madrasa in Peshawar, on the northwest frontier of Pakistan. She then moves on to two jihadi training camps—finding herself ever closer to the front where the Taliban fight the warlords of northern Afghanistan. Weary of caring for her alcoholic mother and entirely disillusioned with her unfaithful, “apostate”, university professor father, an Islamic studies scholar, Aden has turned to Islam, apparently in a desire for clarity and purity. An outcast at school who is snickered at by her peers, she has attended a mosque for a little over a year and has become radicalized. Wearing a shalwar kameez and a boyish haircut (and swallowing a daily dose of menstrual-cycle-altering hormones), she has her erstwhile boyfriend, Decker, traveling with her. Decker, who is of Pashtun heritage, has connections in the region and is fluent in the local languages. However, he does not have Aden’s drive for meaning, purpose, and certainty. He’s along for the ride as protector and interpreter, with hopes that loyalty might bring sexual rewards.
Aden’s father believes she is taking a gap year to find herself. A detached figure, he avoids discussing the psychological conflicts (largely related to his behaviour and betrayal) that are fuelling his daughter’s actions, as well as the ideology that guides her, even when she refers to her trip as a “jihad”. It’s unclear what her mother thinks, lost as she is in a persistent alcoholic fog. She has turned the family photos to face the wall, however, indicating that she regards Aden’s departure as a kind of death.
Wray makes some interesting authorial choices. A significant portion of his novel consists of dialogue, but he eschews the usual punctuation marks and speaker tags, employing introductory dashes instead to mark the switch from one speaker to another. I’m not sure why he’s done this, though it may be that the dash suggests a sort of urgency. In any case, substituting this unconventional punctuation for the more common marks does not interfere with meaning. Wray’s writing is clean, limber, often hushed, and beautiful in its simplicity. He effectively tells as often as he shows, but his telling is nuanced and understated.
As might be expected, much of the tension in this novel arises from the reader’s fear that Aden’s female identity will be exposed. I don’t believe any young American woman entering Afghanistan would be as successful at male impersonation and for such a duration of time as Aden is. If readers are unwilling to suspend their disbelief about this, and if they won’t accept a certain vagueness about how Aden became so fluent in Arabic, how she converted to Islam and became radicalized, the novel might be problematic for them. I agreed to Wray’s terms, and the book worked for me.
Additional tension is created when Decker and Aden’s relationship threatens to break down. Is it possible that he will attempt to return to America without her? Will he reveal her true identity to those running the training camp? Can a young boy recruit who has seen Aden squatting and noted her “missing parts” accept her explanation for this, or will he mention to someone that she is not like them?
Aden’s devotion to Ziar Khan, a recruiter who is a decade older than she, also propels the plot. There is a simmering passion here, and many of the men suspect that Aden, or “Suleyman” (as she now calls herself), is his “dancing boy”. Does Ziar suspect that this devout warrior for God, who has come from the land of the enemy in order to protect a Muslim nation, is actually a girl? What will happen if and when he does?
For the better part of the novel, there is some uncertainty about when it is set. This, too, creates a kind of tension, and it is satisfying when Wray finally reveals the time period.
To this point, I’ve deliberately avoided looking at critical reviews and author interviews. However, I’m certainly curious to know more about how Wray came to write this unusual and fascinating novel and how he conducted his research.
“She’d hoped for grace and dignity and unity of purpose.”
John Wray’s compelling novel focuses on the physical and spiritual journey of an 18-year-old American girl, Aden Grace Sawyer. Initially, Aden travels from San Francisco to a madrasa in Peshawar, on the northwest frontier of Pakistan. She then moves on to two jihadi training camps—finding herself ever closer to the front where the Taliban fight the warlords of northern Afghanistan. Weary of caring for her alcoholic mother and entirely disillusioned with her unfaithful, “apostate”, university professor father, an Islamic studies scholar, Aden has turned to Islam, apparently in a desire for clarity and purity. An outcast at school who is snickered at by her peers, she has attended a mosque for a little over a year and has become radicalized. Wearing a shalwar kameez and a boyish haircut (and swallowing a daily dose of menstrual-cycle-altering hormones), she has her erstwhile boyfriend, Decker, traveling with her. Decker, who is of Pashtun heritage, has connections in the region and is fluent in the local languages. However, he does not have Aden’s drive for meaning, purpose, and certainty. He’s along for the ride as protector and interpreter, with hopes that loyalty might bring sexual rewards.
Aden’s father believes she is taking a gap year to find herself. A detached figure, he avoids discussing the psychological conflicts (largely related to his behaviour and betrayal) that are fuelling his daughter’s actions, as well as the ideology that guides her, even when she refers to her trip as a “jihad”. It’s unclear what her mother thinks, lost as she is in a persistent alcoholic fog. She has turned the family photos to face the wall, however, indicating that she regards Aden’s departure as a kind of death.
Wray makes some interesting authorial choices. A significant portion of his novel consists of dialogue, but he eschews the usual punctuation marks and speaker tags, employing introductory dashes instead to mark the switch from one speaker to another. I’m not sure why he’s done this, though it may be that the dash suggests a sort of urgency. In any case, substituting this unconventional punctuation for the more common marks does not interfere with meaning. Wray’s writing is clean, limber, often hushed, and beautiful in its simplicity. He effectively tells as often as he shows, but his telling is nuanced and understated.
As might be expected, much of the tension in this novel arises from the reader’s fear that Aden’s female identity will be exposed. I don’t believe any young American woman entering Afghanistan would be as successful at male impersonation and for such a duration of time as Aden is. If readers are unwilling to suspend their disbelief about this, and if they won’t accept a certain vagueness about how Aden became so fluent in Arabic, how she converted to Islam and became radicalized, the novel might be problematic for them. I agreed to Wray’s terms, and the book worked for me.
Additional tension is created when Decker and Aden’s relationship threatens to break down. Is it possible that he will attempt to return to America without her? Will he reveal her true identity to those running the training camp? Can a young boy recruit who has seen Aden squatting and noted her “missing parts” accept her explanation for this, or will he mention to someone that she is not like them?
Aden’s devotion to Ziar Khan, a recruiter who is a decade older than she, also propels the plot. There is a simmering passion here, and many of the men suspect that Aden, or “Suleyman” (as she now calls herself), is his “dancing boy”. Does Ziar suspect that this devout warrior for God, who has come from the land of the enemy in order to protect a Muslim nation, is actually a girl? What will happen if and when he does?
For the better part of the novel, there is some uncertainty about when it is set. This, too, creates a kind of tension, and it is satisfying when Wray finally reveals the time period.
To this point, I’ve deliberately avoided looking at critical reviews and author interviews. However, I’m certainly curious to know more about how Wray came to write this unusual and fascinating novel and how he conducted his research.
October 12, 2018
She imagined her past life waiting on the far side of the border, the camp and the madrasa and the town where she'd been born, her school friends and her family, the girl she'd been and long since put to death
It's hard to imagine that a story about a young American woman leaving her home for jihad in Afghanistan could be so muted and quiet - yet Wray has written a book which is filled with intensity and yet sidesteps all the tabloid sensationalism that often accrues to this topic. Balancing a coming-of-age story with its Afghan setting takes skill and Wray never makes a wrong move.
I don't want to say much about the plot but this is a masterful study in imaginative empathy for a protagonist whose shining idealism leads her down some dark pathways. There are questions subtly posed about to what extent Aden Grace makes choices, and how her options might be circumscribed.
The setting of Afghanistan just before 9/11 (which happens offstage during the story) is also rendered with acute detail: not least in the tensions between the Afghan Pashtuns and the wealthy sponsors of jihad from outside the country.
This is a lean tale but with searching depth, and the writing is elegant and precise. An extraordinary book, then - I can't believe I hadn't heard of Wray before this.
Many thanks to Canongate for an ARC via NetGalley
August 22, 2019
I just couldn’t get into this at all, I felt the characters were one dimensional on the whole and there was no explanation as to why Aden, the central character, had turned to Islam in the first place. I’m often astounded by male authors who can write in the voice of a female character but not on this occasion. She just wasn’t complex enough. The detail seems well researched and I understand it was based on the life of an American jihadi pre 9/11. I was interested to learn about bacha posh, a custom in Pakistan and Afghanistan whereby a daughter is dressed and treated as a boy in a family where there are no sons. She is allowed to go to school and can escort the female members of her family outside the home without a male escort. I’m not a big fan of dialogue without quotation marks. It takes longer to read through a conversation because you have to think about where speech begins and ends, i.e. what is commentary and what isn’t, but I can live with it if I’m involved in the storyline. In this case, I wasn’t.
This book has rave reviews but it also has mixed reviews. The style of writing just wasn’t for me so I’m in the mixed category. Just 3 stars but thanks to NetGalley and Canongate for giving me the opportunity to read it in exchange for a review.
This book has rave reviews but it also has mixed reviews. The style of writing just wasn’t for me so I’m in the mixed category. Just 3 stars but thanks to NetGalley and Canongate for giving me the opportunity to read it in exchange for a review.
October 14, 2018
Aden Grace sawyer is an eighteen year old girl native Californian. She feels as if people pass judgement on her even her own parents. She doesn't seem to care that people think bad about her because she believes in Jihad. She is an American but does not feel like one. She doesn't feel like she belongs. Aden’s friends have abandoned her since she converted to Islam and all she has left is her best friend Decker. Deciding to study the Qur’an at a madrasa in Pakistan, she convinces Decker to accompany her on her journey. Aden hopes after her studies at the madrasa that she can cross over the border to Afghanistan as talibs are fighting the godless to bring back faith to their country. Aden wants to live the word of God, but in order to do so she must disguise herself as a young boy and in doing so she takes up the name Suleyman. Her journey of discovery is a dangerous one rife with sadness and hard truths. But in the eyes of Islam, she is the biggest liar of them all. She is a sinner bearing false witness as she deceives everyone around her. Will Aden finally find a place where she belongs or will this be the worst mistake she has ever made?
Aden is not an easy character to like. In fact, I pretty much hated her for the majority of this story. She is selfish and delusional to think she can just go to a Muslim country and fight for a country and people who consider her an outsider. She has grand dreams of living the word of God with people in unity of purpose something she does not feel in America. But, when she arrives in the Middle east she experiences the same level of disgust as she did in California.
Aden studies hard at the madrasa finding favor with the Mullah, but when she meets the Mullah’s son, Ziar Khan, her entire world changes. She travels with him across the border where she learns how to fight, suffers through losses, witnesses death and slowly begins to understand how perilous her situation really is. Also remember this is a time prior and leading up to 9/11. I don’t think Aden realizes just how much the taliban hates America or any other country they consider godless. Aden is in way over her head and to be quite honest I was not looking for a happy ending for her.
Godsend is inspired by John Walker Lindh, a US citizen who converted to Islam who later became a traitor to his country. You can see the parallel between his story and Aden’s and it is quite frightening. This story is not an easy read by any means. John Wray does not romanticize any part of this story. He shows the harsh realities of life in the Middle East during a time of political unrest. Even though Godless is a fictitious story, many parts of it ring true. it flows effortlessly and is beautifully written regardless of topic. As much as I disliked Aden, I loved the story as a whole in its simplicity. Wray shows us that you do not have to use flowery words to make a story stand out. I can’t help by liken Wray’s style of writing to Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Godless is a gripping story that is so powerful and so compelling. Even though I had a hard time reading it, I also had a hard time putting it down. I was truly captivated by Wray’s style of writing and the way his voice grips you and doesn’t let go. This is not a book you just read, it is a book that you feel deep down in your soul. Godless is an award worthy read and I wish nothing but the best for this book. I can not recommend this book highly enough! It deserves all of the praise it is sure to receive.
Aden is not an easy character to like. In fact, I pretty much hated her for the majority of this story. She is selfish and delusional to think she can just go to a Muslim country and fight for a country and people who consider her an outsider. She has grand dreams of living the word of God with people in unity of purpose something she does not feel in America. But, when she arrives in the Middle east she experiences the same level of disgust as she did in California.
Aden studies hard at the madrasa finding favor with the Mullah, but when she meets the Mullah’s son, Ziar Khan, her entire world changes. She travels with him across the border where she learns how to fight, suffers through losses, witnesses death and slowly begins to understand how perilous her situation really is. Also remember this is a time prior and leading up to 9/11. I don’t think Aden realizes just how much the taliban hates America or any other country they consider godless. Aden is in way over her head and to be quite honest I was not looking for a happy ending for her.
Godsend is inspired by John Walker Lindh, a US citizen who converted to Islam who later became a traitor to his country. You can see the parallel between his story and Aden’s and it is quite frightening. This story is not an easy read by any means. John Wray does not romanticize any part of this story. He shows the harsh realities of life in the Middle East during a time of political unrest. Even though Godless is a fictitious story, many parts of it ring true. it flows effortlessly and is beautifully written regardless of topic. As much as I disliked Aden, I loved the story as a whole in its simplicity. Wray shows us that you do not have to use flowery words to make a story stand out. I can’t help by liken Wray’s style of writing to Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Godless is a gripping story that is so powerful and so compelling. Even though I had a hard time reading it, I also had a hard time putting it down. I was truly captivated by Wray’s style of writing and the way his voice grips you and doesn’t let go. This is not a book you just read, it is a book that you feel deep down in your soul. Godless is an award worthy read and I wish nothing but the best for this book. I can not recommend this book highly enough! It deserves all of the praise it is sure to receive.
November 17, 2018
This novel is different from any that I can ever recall having read. It is a coming-of-age story, but it is no ordinary coming-of-age story.
John Wray was inspired to write his book by the story of the young American, John Walker Lindh, who became known as the "American Taliban." Lindh was captured as an enemy combatant during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, but he was a rather pitiable character who had apparently been originally inspired by idealism and a desire to study Arabic, for which purpose he had traveled to Yemen. Somewhere along the way he became radicalized and went to aid the Taliban in Afghanistan and he had the misfortune to still be there when the Saudi-led attack on the United States occurred.
Wray's main character is an idealistic 18-year-old from Santa Rosa, California, who makes a plan to travel to Peshawar, Pakistan, to study Islam at a madrasa. So far, not so different from Lindh, but there is one very important difference: She is a young woman.
Aden Grace Sawyer was an outsider, a loner. She had only one real friend. Her parents were separated and she lived with her mother, a hopeless alcoholic. Her father, who had been unfaithful in the marriage and had moved out, was a secular scholar of Islam. Aden despises her parents and her life and seeks to escape. She feels empty and wants something to fill her life with purpose. She becomes intrigued with the idea of studying Islam and devoting herself to the "struggle," and with her friend, Decker, develops the plan to go to Pakistan.
They get financial help for the trip from their local mosque and Aden shaves her head, binds her breasts with an Ace bandage, and secures a supply of pills to stop her menstrual cycle. As a woman, she could not study at the madrasa and so she will be a man. This may remind you of Isaac Bashevis Singer's story of Yentl, the rabbi's daughter who disguised herself as a boy in order to study at yeshiva. I find the parallels both revealing and ironic.
Once the two adventurers arrive at the small rural madrasa where they will study, they must choose new names. Aden takes the name Suleyman, which was also the name - or similar to it - that Lindh adopted and she begins her training. It begins with learning the suras of the Qur'an by heart and progresses on to actual military training. Through a series of events, she ends up on the front lines of battle in Afghanistan just prior to the attacks of 9/11.
Aden/Suleyman is never completely trusted by the militants. They see her as something exotic. She is constantly in fear of being found out and knows the fate that would await her if she is.
The men continue to be suspicious of her and don't seem to know what to make of her, but she does become close to one of them, a leader who may, in fact, have known her secret.
Wray writes very convincingly about Islamic theology and about the religious fervor that motivates his characters. This is, in some ways, a religious thriller with the main character experiencing the terror of potential discovery. The writer makes this terror palpable and it is obvious that he has spent some time mastering the subject of life in Afghanistan and Pakistan and warfare as it is practiced there. He makes it all very real for the reader and he builds the tension to an intensely devastating ending.
I don't remember where I first heard of this book, but I was intrigued by its premise and immediately put it in my reading queue. I'm very glad I did. It's a book and an ending that I won't soon forget.
John Wray was inspired to write his book by the story of the young American, John Walker Lindh, who became known as the "American Taliban." Lindh was captured as an enemy combatant during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, but he was a rather pitiable character who had apparently been originally inspired by idealism and a desire to study Arabic, for which purpose he had traveled to Yemen. Somewhere along the way he became radicalized and went to aid the Taliban in Afghanistan and he had the misfortune to still be there when the Saudi-led attack on the United States occurred.
Wray's main character is an idealistic 18-year-old from Santa Rosa, California, who makes a plan to travel to Peshawar, Pakistan, to study Islam at a madrasa. So far, not so different from Lindh, but there is one very important difference: She is a young woman.
Aden Grace Sawyer was an outsider, a loner. She had only one real friend. Her parents were separated and she lived with her mother, a hopeless alcoholic. Her father, who had been unfaithful in the marriage and had moved out, was a secular scholar of Islam. Aden despises her parents and her life and seeks to escape. She feels empty and wants something to fill her life with purpose. She becomes intrigued with the idea of studying Islam and devoting herself to the "struggle," and with her friend, Decker, develops the plan to go to Pakistan.
They get financial help for the trip from their local mosque and Aden shaves her head, binds her breasts with an Ace bandage, and secures a supply of pills to stop her menstrual cycle. As a woman, she could not study at the madrasa and so she will be a man. This may remind you of Isaac Bashevis Singer's story of Yentl, the rabbi's daughter who disguised herself as a boy in order to study at yeshiva. I find the parallels both revealing and ironic.
Once the two adventurers arrive at the small rural madrasa where they will study, they must choose new names. Aden takes the name Suleyman, which was also the name - or similar to it - that Lindh adopted and she begins her training. It begins with learning the suras of the Qur'an by heart and progresses on to actual military training. Through a series of events, she ends up on the front lines of battle in Afghanistan just prior to the attacks of 9/11.
Aden/Suleyman is never completely trusted by the militants. They see her as something exotic. She is constantly in fear of being found out and knows the fate that would await her if she is.
The men continue to be suspicious of her and don't seem to know what to make of her, but she does become close to one of them, a leader who may, in fact, have known her secret.
Wray writes very convincingly about Islamic theology and about the religious fervor that motivates his characters. This is, in some ways, a religious thriller with the main character experiencing the terror of potential discovery. The writer makes this terror palpable and it is obvious that he has spent some time mastering the subject of life in Afghanistan and Pakistan and warfare as it is practiced there. He makes it all very real for the reader and he builds the tension to an intensely devastating ending.
I don't remember where I first heard of this book, but I was intrigued by its premise and immediately put it in my reading queue. I'm very glad I did. It's a book and an ending that I won't soon forget.
October 29, 2018
John Wray is able to portray characters that are emotionally lost, mentally ill, or somehow just don't fit into society's acceptable expectations. After reading 'Lowboy', his brilliant novel of a schizophrenic young man, I eagerly anticipated his next book. Though it was a long time in coming, it has been worth the wait.
Aden Sawyer is the 18 year old daughter of a professor of Islamic studies and an alcoholic mother living in a California college town. She wants desperately to leave her family and hometown and travel to the middle east. Her father, who has left Aden's mother for another woman, has not paid much attention to Aden for some time and does not realize how enamored she is of Islam. She has recently shaved off all her hair, dresses in a white shalwar kameez and sees herself "not a girl, not a boy. Just a ghost in a body." Her father thinks she will be travelling to Dubai or the Emirates to study but that is not what Aden has in mind.
She dreams of travelling to Pakistan, perhaps even Afghanistan, participating in Jihad and becoming a holy apostle of Islam. She has been attending a local mosque and studying Arabic. "No language on earth was more beautiful to look at, more beautiful to speak." While her father saw only the beauty in it, Aden saw "the suffering brought to bear on every calligraph. But beauty was its first attribute and the most dangerous by far. The beauty of austerity. The beauty of no quarter. She felt its pull and saw no earthly end to it."
Aden disguises herself as a man because she realizes that, as a woman in a Muslim culture, she would not be able to experience any of the things that have become her passion. Along with Decker, her on and off boyfriend, they leave the United States on a journey that will take their bodies and souls to places they had never even imagined. Armed with her holy beliefs and Qur'an, sometimes even a weapon, she studies her chosen religion and changes her name to Suleyman Al-Na'ama. She learns that "the word jihad was often used but never in the sense of inner struggle."
Usually, I find it difficult to suspend belief in certain situations. For instance, how did Aden hide her gender over time? Even with her breasts bound, wouldn't the signs of womanhood betray her? Wouldn't Decker slip and give away Aden's past identity? Despite my questions, I was caught up in the narrative. The author had me from the first page which begins with Aden's letter to her father; "You said I'd never make it to this place. And here I am."
As Suleyman becomes one with her chosen life, I was with her. Sometimes I felt like she was lost and at other times I felt like she had found herself. I realized that there were no absolutes except life and death and even those definitions could lead one to gray areas. In effect, I often asked myself who she was: Aden or Suleyman; apostate or true believe; foreigner or finally home.
Aden Sawyer is the 18 year old daughter of a professor of Islamic studies and an alcoholic mother living in a California college town. She wants desperately to leave her family and hometown and travel to the middle east. Her father, who has left Aden's mother for another woman, has not paid much attention to Aden for some time and does not realize how enamored she is of Islam. She has recently shaved off all her hair, dresses in a white shalwar kameez and sees herself "not a girl, not a boy. Just a ghost in a body." Her father thinks she will be travelling to Dubai or the Emirates to study but that is not what Aden has in mind.
She dreams of travelling to Pakistan, perhaps even Afghanistan, participating in Jihad and becoming a holy apostle of Islam. She has been attending a local mosque and studying Arabic. "No language on earth was more beautiful to look at, more beautiful to speak." While her father saw only the beauty in it, Aden saw "the suffering brought to bear on every calligraph. But beauty was its first attribute and the most dangerous by far. The beauty of austerity. The beauty of no quarter. She felt its pull and saw no earthly end to it."
Aden disguises herself as a man because she realizes that, as a woman in a Muslim culture, she would not be able to experience any of the things that have become her passion. Along with Decker, her on and off boyfriend, they leave the United States on a journey that will take their bodies and souls to places they had never even imagined. Armed with her holy beliefs and Qur'an, sometimes even a weapon, she studies her chosen religion and changes her name to Suleyman Al-Na'ama. She learns that "the word jihad was often used but never in the sense of inner struggle."
Usually, I find it difficult to suspend belief in certain situations. For instance, how did Aden hide her gender over time? Even with her breasts bound, wouldn't the signs of womanhood betray her? Wouldn't Decker slip and give away Aden's past identity? Despite my questions, I was caught up in the narrative. The author had me from the first page which begins with Aden's letter to her father; "You said I'd never make it to this place. And here I am."
As Suleyman becomes one with her chosen life, I was with her. Sometimes I felt like she was lost and at other times I felt like she had found herself. I realized that there were no absolutes except life and death and even those definitions could lead one to gray areas. In effect, I often asked myself who she was: Aden or Suleyman; apostate or true believe; foreigner or finally home.
December 5, 2018
On a journalistic assignment for Esquire magazine, John Wray travelled to Afghanistan to meet people who had known John Walker Lindh. Lindh was the American who joined the Taliban and who was captured by US forces in December 2001. While in Afghanistan, Wray heard rumours of another American who had joined the conflict on the opposite side and some said it was a woman, perhaps even a girl.
This is the starting point for Wray’s new novel. It is set in the second half of that year, a period which everyone knows as the time of 9/11.
Aden Grace Sawyer is a teenage American girl who has recently converted to Islam and who heads away from a dysfunctional family life to Pakistan. She travels with Decker, her sort-of-boyfriend who is an American of Pashtun origin. She is fiercely committed to her new faith, perhaps, even to the point of being over-zealous. In the very first section of the novel we read:
“Some kids from school walked by and snickered, and she allowed herself, for the last time, the luxury of picturing them dead.”
This is the first hint of the darkness that lies ahead, although it does not start to really make itself known until the halfway point. We never learn Aden’s back story which might be regarded as a weakness but I believe may be deliberate so that more readers can identify with her (discuss!).
Aden, on leaving the US, takes care to disguise her gender. She bandages her breasts and has taught herself to speak in a deeper voice. She believes she needs to pass as a boy to achieve her goals. She cuts all ties with her former life, even to the point of destroying her passport and begins to live as Suleyman, a young man.
Aden’s stated aim in Pakistan is to attend a madrassa and to learn about her new found faith. However, once she reaches Pakistan, the book, which starts like a coming of age story, takes a much darker turn. The madrassa is in Peshawar which, as someone notes, is very close to the border with Afghanistan and very soon we are in a world of war and conflict.
The book is a fascinating read. Wray writes very sensitively, sympathetically and subtly about religious beliefs. He gives us a rarely seen glimpse of “the other side” as an American writing about 9/11 as seen from Afghanistan (“What does that matter to us?” one man says, “What happens in America is no concern of ours” says another). He is not afraid to write in an ambiguous way where, for a few pages, the reader is left wondering what just happened until, a bit later, the pieces fall into place and it becomes clear: for a while the reader is on tenterhooks wondering what exactly Aden or someone else has just done. He also writes in a deceptively allusive way about, for example, what it is like to be a victim of a drone attack.
So, whilst it is sometimes a bit difficult to suspend disbelief for so long (could someone really go so long pretending to be a man without being discovered when living as part of an army of men), somehow that does not matter because it is the story that matters here and that is a powerful one well worth reading.
The review here in The New Yorker is well worth taking the time to read (probably after rather than before you read the book): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20....
My thanks to Canongate Books for an advance copy via NetGalley.
This is the starting point for Wray’s new novel. It is set in the second half of that year, a period which everyone knows as the time of 9/11.
Aden Grace Sawyer is a teenage American girl who has recently converted to Islam and who heads away from a dysfunctional family life to Pakistan. She travels with Decker, her sort-of-boyfriend who is an American of Pashtun origin. She is fiercely committed to her new faith, perhaps, even to the point of being over-zealous. In the very first section of the novel we read:
“Some kids from school walked by and snickered, and she allowed herself, for the last time, the luxury of picturing them dead.”
This is the first hint of the darkness that lies ahead, although it does not start to really make itself known until the halfway point. We never learn Aden’s back story which might be regarded as a weakness but I believe may be deliberate so that more readers can identify with her (discuss!).
Aden, on leaving the US, takes care to disguise her gender. She bandages her breasts and has taught herself to speak in a deeper voice. She believes she needs to pass as a boy to achieve her goals. She cuts all ties with her former life, even to the point of destroying her passport and begins to live as Suleyman, a young man.
Aden’s stated aim in Pakistan is to attend a madrassa and to learn about her new found faith. However, once she reaches Pakistan, the book, which starts like a coming of age story, takes a much darker turn. The madrassa is in Peshawar which, as someone notes, is very close to the border with Afghanistan and very soon we are in a world of war and conflict.
The book is a fascinating read. Wray writes very sensitively, sympathetically and subtly about religious beliefs. He gives us a rarely seen glimpse of “the other side” as an American writing about 9/11 as seen from Afghanistan (“What does that matter to us?” one man says, “What happens in America is no concern of ours” says another). He is not afraid to write in an ambiguous way where, for a few pages, the reader is left wondering what just happened until, a bit later, the pieces fall into place and it becomes clear: for a while the reader is on tenterhooks wondering what exactly Aden or someone else has just done. He also writes in a deceptively allusive way about, for example, what it is like to be a victim of a drone attack.
So, whilst it is sometimes a bit difficult to suspend disbelief for so long (could someone really go so long pretending to be a man without being discovered when living as part of an army of men), somehow that does not matter because it is the story that matters here and that is a powerful one well worth reading.
The review here in The New Yorker is well worth taking the time to read (probably after rather than before you read the book): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20....
My thanks to Canongate Books for an advance copy via NetGalley.
December 10, 2018
Godsend - ostensibly based on the story of John Walker Lindh, an American who joined the Taliban in 2000 (and was later captured post-9/11) - follows Aden Sawyer, an 18 year old from California who travels to Pakistan with her friend to study in a madrasa.
A very strong opening, but I feel like the second half of the book didn't quite deliver. The build up to the doomed journey was highly engaging, and I was excited to see what direction the story took. But certain narrative choices (which I won't discuss as they're kind of spoilery) didn't work for me. Still worth the read due to the timely nature of the topic matter, but I finished this one feeling it could have been so much better.
Thank you Netgalley and Canongate Books for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
A very strong opening, but I feel like the second half of the book didn't quite deliver. The build up to the doomed journey was highly engaging, and I was excited to see what direction the story took. But certain narrative choices (which I won't discuss as they're kind of spoilery) didn't work for me. Still worth the read due to the timely nature of the topic matter, but I finished this one feeling it could have been so much better.
Thank you Netgalley and Canongate Books for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
November 15, 2018
We don’t know much about Aden Grace Sawyer, the 18-year-old Californian who is passionate about connecting with fundamentalist Islam. Like so many, she is a blank state looking in all the wrong places for meaning.
We do know this—she is the daughter of a mother who is an alcoholic and a philandering Islam scholar father who is an Islam scholar and is seeking a connection to—something. As a result, not unlike Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Yentl the Yeshiva Boy, she disguises herself as a boy and flies to Pakistan with a would-be boyfriend to immerse herself in the study of Islam.
It is the suffering and the sacrificial glory that attracts her the most. Early on, a mullah sees right through her: “The faith I follow is one that raises humility above all other virtues…And there is no humility in the righteous self-love of the mujahid. There is no modesty in it no denial of desire, no compassion, no restraint. But of course, such virtues hold no attraction for the young. Especially those for whom war is but a fairy story. To such young men inaction is the greatest of sins.”
We know—or believe we know—where this story is headed: the zeal of the “true believer”, the uncompromising view of the world, the military training, followed by either the abnegation of self or mounting disillusionment. In the hands of a lesser writer, this could all become overly predictable particularly with its gender-swapping plot. But John Wray is a fine writer and does not fall into the usual pitfalls.
Mr. Wray has obviously done quite a lot of research into the theology as well as the allures of this complex religion and scenes and dialogue unfold organically. His desire to provide an authentic reckoning sometimes gets in the way of forward momentum. Without a clearer understanding of Aden’s motivations and back story, it is difficult to fully understand her immersion into this fundamentalist sect. As she increasingly becomes involved in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border fighting, we lose remaining threads of the character’s interiority. All in all, this is a fine, if restrained book that once again pays testimony to John Wray’s immense talent.
We do know this—she is the daughter of a mother who is an alcoholic and a philandering Islam scholar father who is an Islam scholar and is seeking a connection to—something. As a result, not unlike Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Yentl the Yeshiva Boy, she disguises herself as a boy and flies to Pakistan with a would-be boyfriend to immerse herself in the study of Islam.
It is the suffering and the sacrificial glory that attracts her the most. Early on, a mullah sees right through her: “The faith I follow is one that raises humility above all other virtues…And there is no humility in the righteous self-love of the mujahid. There is no modesty in it no denial of desire, no compassion, no restraint. But of course, such virtues hold no attraction for the young. Especially those for whom war is but a fairy story. To such young men inaction is the greatest of sins.”
We know—or believe we know—where this story is headed: the zeal of the “true believer”, the uncompromising view of the world, the military training, followed by either the abnegation of self or mounting disillusionment. In the hands of a lesser writer, this could all become overly predictable particularly with its gender-swapping plot. But John Wray is a fine writer and does not fall into the usual pitfalls.
Mr. Wray has obviously done quite a lot of research into the theology as well as the allures of this complex religion and scenes and dialogue unfold organically. His desire to provide an authentic reckoning sometimes gets in the way of forward momentum. Without a clearer understanding of Aden’s motivations and back story, it is difficult to fully understand her immersion into this fundamentalist sect. As she increasingly becomes involved in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border fighting, we lose remaining threads of the character’s interiority. All in all, this is a fine, if restrained book that once again pays testimony to John Wray’s immense talent.
October 1, 2020
Aden Sawyer is where she wanted to be.
Aden Sawyer is also aware she is in great danger, now. But there's no easy way back....
She had left her suburban Californian city of Santa Rosa, inspired by writings she had accidentally seen on her father's computer, and with her muslim friend Decker, who had his own reasons to go, to find a truly good madrasa in Pakistan. Of course, to be able to stay in one means she's had to disguise herself as a boy, and use a male muslim name, Suleyman. But in the end she ends up much deeper than that, thanks to her friend, and the madrasa mullah's oldest son, Ziar, a Russian War veteran - in a jihadi training camp in Afghanistan... trouble and a painful way of maturing lies ahead.
How did she turn up like this? Her mother is a bitter drunk, but she resents more her father, who has a new girlfriend, and who's general character behind being a professor of Islamic Studies is one of a complacent, gentle indifference. She writes him never-sent letters, addressing him as Teacher:
"People will show up one day and ask about me and I bet you'll know exactly what to tell them. You'll say Family troubles. You'll say She was angry. You'll say She was bored. And I was bored... You probably never believed one single thing in your whole life."
She is hungering to belong, to find the missing pieces of her identity, to give her parents a particularly big show of rebellion, and of course, she was bored and without maturing wisdom - she grows a lot in this story, but no doubt wishing she could've done that without the danger and horrors she witnesses.
I think she starts to realise her foolishness more clearly after the incident. Doubts, guilt, grief, and regret appear too, as experiences and losses gather. And there's struggle with her friendships with both Decker (even more dangerously naive than her, failing to mature), and Ziar (who is both protective and observant, and crucial person for her survival, all the way through the story).
The gender disguising is already there as we meet her: short-haired, dressed in shalwar kameez, Quran in the pocket. And for a long time after arrival it works, but gradually doubts about others not knowing increase and reach the screaming point in the .
Interesting to note some remains of the past: the empty Nestle crates, faded UNICEF tents, blown-up bridges, a former Soviet farm. And as for disguising, I think it sounded believable, though how long will her pills (to prevent periods) last? Especially after Really not thinking ahead, even if she had stayed at the madrasa as long as she would want to.
The story's end echoes some earlier stuff, like her prayer moment at the village madrasa before she left to fight, the sight of a familiar shirt... things are left open-ended, but she has a (very) small chance of survival if she's smart and lucky enoug, though the road ahead is long and risky. But I'm sure she'll have better things ahead
I found this story much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Constantly wondering when she would be found out, especially when she would talk a bit too boldly to some man/men in some scenes. And some scenes were horrifying: the two . No wonder she matures like she does. Interesting to read what happens to her, and quite believable, informative reading experience.
Aden Sawyer is also aware she is in great danger, now. But there's no easy way back....
She had left her suburban Californian city of Santa Rosa, inspired by writings she had accidentally seen on her father's computer, and with her muslim friend Decker, who had his own reasons to go, to find a truly good madrasa in Pakistan. Of course, to be able to stay in one means she's had to disguise herself as a boy, and use a male muslim name, Suleyman. But in the end she ends up much deeper than that, thanks to her friend, and the madrasa mullah's oldest son, Ziar, a Russian War veteran - in a jihadi training camp in Afghanistan... trouble and a painful way of maturing lies ahead.
How did she turn up like this? Her mother is a bitter drunk, but she resents more her father, who has a new girlfriend, and who's general character behind being a professor of Islamic Studies is one of a complacent, gentle indifference. She writes him never-sent letters, addressing him as Teacher:
"People will show up one day and ask about me and I bet you'll know exactly what to tell them. You'll say Family troubles. You'll say She was angry. You'll say She was bored. And I was bored... You probably never believed one single thing in your whole life."
She is hungering to belong, to find the missing pieces of her identity, to give her parents a particularly big show of rebellion, and of course, she was bored and without maturing wisdom - she grows a lot in this story, but no doubt wishing she could've done that without the danger and horrors she witnesses.
I think she starts to realise her foolishness more clearly after the incident. Doubts, guilt, grief, and regret appear too, as experiences and losses gather. And there's struggle with her friendships with both Decker (even more dangerously naive than her, failing to mature), and Ziar (who is both protective and observant, and crucial person for her survival, all the way through the story).
The gender disguising is already there as we meet her: short-haired, dressed in shalwar kameez, Quran in the pocket. And for a long time after arrival it works, but gradually doubts about others not knowing increase and reach the screaming point in the .
Interesting to note some remains of the past: the empty Nestle crates, faded UNICEF tents, blown-up bridges, a former Soviet farm. And as for disguising, I think it sounded believable, though how long will her pills (to prevent periods) last? Especially after Really not thinking ahead, even if she had stayed at the madrasa as long as she would want to.
The story's end echoes some earlier stuff, like her prayer moment at the village madrasa before she left to fight, the sight of a familiar shirt... things are left open-ended, but she has a (very) small chance of survival if she's smart and lucky enoug, though the road ahead is long and risky. But I'm sure she'll have better things ahead
I found this story much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Constantly wondering when she would be found out, especially when she would talk a bit too boldly to some man/men in some scenes. And some scenes were horrifying: the two . No wonder she matures like she does. Interesting to read what happens to her, and quite believable, informative reading experience.
September 12, 2018
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I understand how Wray's protagonist felt when she left home all by herself at a very young age. I did the same and went halfway around the world to a Southeast Asian country as a volunteer just as Aden Grace Sawyer did. But we went forty years apart, for different reasons, and under different circumstances. I was a Peace Corps volunteer, and Aden set off for Pakistan to study at a Madrasa. I had support from the US government both in Washington and on the ground, a massive infrastructure to provide me with support and medical care. Aden had to transform herself into a young male believer, and her only comfort was her best friend, Decker, who traveled with her.
Reading about Aden's experience as Suleyman ground me down. She was always in fear of being exposed as a female which would cost her her life. The dangerous atmosphere in Pakistan was at a time leading up to 9/11. Suleyman finds herself bored in the Madrasa and follows a wild guy, Ziar, the Mullah's oldest son, into Afghanistan where every minute of every day was a challenge to her survival.
The life jihadists choose takes them on a constant downward spiral. There doesn't seem to be any hope, even if they are not determined to kill, there isn't a happy ending to any story. Death is continuously present and can come in the next minute. Moving through the rough terrain of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan seemed to me like a death march. And yet, the top echelon of the jihadists accomplished death and destruction unlike anything in American history. There is no end; we have militants today hoping to kill more people in all parts of the world. John Wray put a voice to it in the form of an innocent young girl. I learned so much from this novel.
I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.
I understand how Wray's protagonist felt when she left home all by herself at a very young age. I did the same and went halfway around the world to a Southeast Asian country as a volunteer just as Aden Grace Sawyer did. But we went forty years apart, for different reasons, and under different circumstances. I was a Peace Corps volunteer, and Aden set off for Pakistan to study at a Madrasa. I had support from the US government both in Washington and on the ground, a massive infrastructure to provide me with support and medical care. Aden had to transform herself into a young male believer, and her only comfort was her best friend, Decker, who traveled with her.
Reading about Aden's experience as Suleyman ground me down. She was always in fear of being exposed as a female which would cost her her life. The dangerous atmosphere in Pakistan was at a time leading up to 9/11. Suleyman finds herself bored in the Madrasa and follows a wild guy, Ziar, the Mullah's oldest son, into Afghanistan where every minute of every day was a challenge to her survival.
The life jihadists choose takes them on a constant downward spiral. There doesn't seem to be any hope, even if they are not determined to kill, there isn't a happy ending to any story. Death is continuously present and can come in the next minute. Moving through the rough terrain of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan seemed to me like a death march. And yet, the top echelon of the jihadists accomplished death and destruction unlike anything in American history. There is no end; we have militants today hoping to kill more people in all parts of the world. John Wray put a voice to it in the form of an innocent young girl. I learned so much from this novel.
I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.
December 5, 2018
I won this book through a giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
I am really stumped as far as explaining my feelings when it comes to this book.
The writing itself was not at all bad, I just feel like it didn’t answer anything. Not that it was intended to be the answer to any questions...or was it?
I don’t know. I feel like I was supposed to learn “why” Aden felt the way she did, why she believed the things that she believed, and why she did the things that she did. However, I didn’t get any of that answered. It was more of a story of “hi, this is me, and this is what happened” instead of “hi this is me, and I’m going to bring you into my world to try and give you some understanding as to why things are the way they are”.
I truly don’t know if this makes any sense to any of you....but I am doing my best to describe in words what I am thinking and feeling in my mind. I have been dreading this review for this very reason. I usually have no problem with writing reviews. The thoughts just flow....but this one, something about it has me in a “reviewers block”. Lol.
Long story short, the book was informative and gave you a picture of what life was like overseas, the madrasas, and how some of the jihad groups did things. It just didn’t prove all that useful for much else. This is solely my opinion.
I am really stumped as far as explaining my feelings when it comes to this book.
The writing itself was not at all bad, I just feel like it didn’t answer anything. Not that it was intended to be the answer to any questions...or was it?
I don’t know. I feel like I was supposed to learn “why” Aden felt the way she did, why she believed the things that she believed, and why she did the things that she did. However, I didn’t get any of that answered. It was more of a story of “hi, this is me, and this is what happened” instead of “hi this is me, and I’m going to bring you into my world to try and give you some understanding as to why things are the way they are”.
I truly don’t know if this makes any sense to any of you....but I am doing my best to describe in words what I am thinking and feeling in my mind. I have been dreading this review for this very reason. I usually have no problem with writing reviews. The thoughts just flow....but this one, something about it has me in a “reviewers block”. Lol.
Long story short, the book was informative and gave you a picture of what life was like overseas, the madrasas, and how some of the jihad groups did things. It just didn’t prove all that useful for much else. This is solely my opinion.
October 25, 2018
This was a really crazy read. It was so timely and so realistic... I was hooked immediately. I didn’t know where this was going to go but it was definitely worth the ride. Very different and very addictive.
February 1, 2019
Killing our fellow human beings in the name of some religious teaching has been going on for as long as man has believed in one of the many gods available. Holy books may talk of compassion but they also endorse punishment for those who break their rules. It suits the arbiters when followers live their lives in fear of how they will be treated after death. Religion is about power in the here and now.
Godsend explores the skewed thinking of believers who are willing to kill and die for their god. It opens in California where we are introduced to eighteen year old Aden Grace Sawyer. Aden is angry with the small world she knows, especially how it has been treating her. Recently divorced, her parents view her subsequent conversion to Islam as a petty rebellion against their indecorous behaviour. They do not understand that Aden is using her faith to fill a void and give life purpose.
Aden’s father is a professor of Islamic studies and introduced his daughter to the religion, teaching her Arabic and how to read the Qur’an. He often talked of his time abroad as a young man learning in a madrassa. Aden has informed him that she plans to travel to the Emirates to do the same. Online she met a boy, Decker, and has arranged the trip with him. Unbeknown to her parents, their destination is a school in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. As a female, Aden would not be permitted to study in this place so she has cut off her hair and will present herself as a boy. She will become Suleyman Al-Na’ama.
Aden leaves America with no plans to return as she wishes to live in a country ruled by fellow believers. On arrival she shocks Decker by telling him they will no longer have sex. She strives to follow doctrine yet must hide behind the falsehood of her disguise. Keeping this secret grants Decker power.
Both Aden and Decker are naive but determined. They claim not to wish to become involved in the fighting over the border but under new influences this will change. Aden seeks an acceptance from others that has, in her short life thus far, eluded her. She doesn’t yet understand that as an American she will never truly be trusted in Afghanistan. If uncovered as a girl here she will, at the very least, be treated as a chattel.
The layers of the story explore the hypocrisy of believers as they cherry-pick which rules to adhere to. There are rivalries and jealousies as they seek personal glory or revenge. The jihadists regard America as depraved and impious. They are willing to die for a cause that they continue to sin against.
In a searing coming-of-age Aden learns that, despite her willingness to comply, she is as alone and derided in Afghanistan as she was in America. Her dreams of escaping the influences of her home country are violently shattered.
“- This war has nothing to do with America, she managed to stammer.
– There is no such war anywhere on earth, Suleyman, the captain said quietly. – America itself has seen to that.”
The calm and beauty to be found in religious observance is shown to be a veneer for intolerance. The pared down prose avoids the rhetoric and hysteria often associated with radicalisation and terrorism. The rhythm and pacing of the story take the reader on a deftly written adventure with a heart in mouth denouement.
It is a tale to challenge perceptions of morality and its imposition.
Godsend explores the skewed thinking of believers who are willing to kill and die for their god. It opens in California where we are introduced to eighteen year old Aden Grace Sawyer. Aden is angry with the small world she knows, especially how it has been treating her. Recently divorced, her parents view her subsequent conversion to Islam as a petty rebellion against their indecorous behaviour. They do not understand that Aden is using her faith to fill a void and give life purpose.
Aden’s father is a professor of Islamic studies and introduced his daughter to the religion, teaching her Arabic and how to read the Qur’an. He often talked of his time abroad as a young man learning in a madrassa. Aden has informed him that she plans to travel to the Emirates to do the same. Online she met a boy, Decker, and has arranged the trip with him. Unbeknown to her parents, their destination is a school in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. As a female, Aden would not be permitted to study in this place so she has cut off her hair and will present herself as a boy. She will become Suleyman Al-Na’ama.
Aden leaves America with no plans to return as she wishes to live in a country ruled by fellow believers. On arrival she shocks Decker by telling him they will no longer have sex. She strives to follow doctrine yet must hide behind the falsehood of her disguise. Keeping this secret grants Decker power.
Both Aden and Decker are naive but determined. They claim not to wish to become involved in the fighting over the border but under new influences this will change. Aden seeks an acceptance from others that has, in her short life thus far, eluded her. She doesn’t yet understand that as an American she will never truly be trusted in Afghanistan. If uncovered as a girl here she will, at the very least, be treated as a chattel.
The layers of the story explore the hypocrisy of believers as they cherry-pick which rules to adhere to. There are rivalries and jealousies as they seek personal glory or revenge. The jihadists regard America as depraved and impious. They are willing to die for a cause that they continue to sin against.
In a searing coming-of-age Aden learns that, despite her willingness to comply, she is as alone and derided in Afghanistan as she was in America. Her dreams of escaping the influences of her home country are violently shattered.
“- This war has nothing to do with America, she managed to stammer.
– There is no such war anywhere on earth, Suleyman, the captain said quietly. – America itself has seen to that.”
The calm and beauty to be found in religious observance is shown to be a veneer for intolerance. The pared down prose avoids the rhetoric and hysteria often associated with radicalisation and terrorism. The rhythm and pacing of the story take the reader on a deftly written adventure with a heart in mouth denouement.
It is a tale to challenge perceptions of morality and its imposition.
February 18, 2019
Eine fesselnde Reise einer jungen Erwachsenen, die ihrer romantisierten Idealistik folgt und dann leider auf die bittere, hatte Realität trifft. Die Geschehnisse werden auf emotionaler Ebene weitläufig und interessant präsentiert. Dabei bleibt jedoch der äußerliche Aspekt oft auf der Strecke und Charakter und Orte wirken farblos. Geschichtlich präsentiert das Buch sich als Coming-of-Age Story die ihre markanten Höhepunkte hat, jedoch den gewohnten Pfaden folgt. Aden fungiert oft als eine Art Spielball ihrer eigenen Idealistik, was wunderbar den Charakter des Buches unterstreicht. Wray schafft es außerdem im Zeiten von dauerhafter Kritik am islam, trotz seiner eher heiklen Geschichte dem religiösen Aspekt den angemessenen Zeitraum zuzusprechen ohne diesen mehr zu verurteilen, als es bei den westlichen Religionen auch der Fall wäre.
Ein tolles Buch über Freundschaft, Entfremdung und den fehlgeleiteten idealen eines jungen Mädchens.
Ein tolles Buch über Freundschaft, Entfremdung und den fehlgeleiteten idealen eines jungen Mädchens.
October 30, 2018
I salute Mr. Wray for attempting to connect with and communicate the humanity of his 17-year-old protagonist. And I appreciate the way he showed how Aden could become so focused on navigating the small corner of the world around her (the madrasa and the training camps) that larger, world issues could become eclipsed.
At the same time, I find myself agreeing with reviewers who felt that the entire exercise felt a little cold and distant. We have a sense of Aden's anger with her parents but after that ... surprisingly little in terms of her thoughts and feelings as she encounters the world. And she seldom seems tired ... or sick to her stomach ... or bored ... or has trouble understanding the welter of languages around her. (Ungenerously, I found myself wondering if maybe wunderkind John Wray hadn't spent enough time in his life being bored for hours and days on end -- or being totally outside a comfort zone -- to really get inside this character's head. I've lived abroad ... and I don't care how open you are to the experience and how hard you study the language. You spend a shitload of time bored out of your skull while folks around you breeze back in forth at speeds and registers you can't follow.)
Last thought -- it's hard in books like this not to avoid a Dance-With-Wolves Effect -- where Aden magically becomes the MOST PROMISING MADRASA STUDENT after only a couple of months in the school, the MOST PROMISING SOLDIER after only a couple months of training, the ABSOLUTE FAVORITE OF VIRTUALLY EVERY LEADER-FIGURE in the book. To be fair, Wray attempts to explain some of this. The Madrasa where she studies is a backwater, village school ... so the classical Arabic she brings with her from the US charms everyone. But still ... you kinda walk away thinking: "Hey, you know who would make a great Muslim jihadist? A white teenage girl from the a
And fer Pete's sake ... collapsing into a romance at the end of her story? WTF? Is that the apotheosis of experience for a woman? With a weird Dido-and-Aeneas interlude in a cave no less? What drove the story in that direction? Okay, maybe daddy issues ... but maybe ... failure of imagination?
At the same time, I find myself agreeing with reviewers who felt that the entire exercise felt a little cold and distant. We have a sense of Aden's anger with her parents but after that ... surprisingly little in terms of her thoughts and feelings as she encounters the world. And she seldom seems tired ... or sick to her stomach ... or bored ... or has trouble understanding the welter of languages around her. (Ungenerously, I found myself wondering if maybe wunderkind John Wray hadn't spent enough time in his life being bored for hours and days on end -- or being totally outside a comfort zone -- to really get inside this character's head. I've lived abroad ... and I don't care how open you are to the experience and how hard you study the language. You spend a shitload of time bored out of your skull while folks around you breeze back in forth at speeds and registers you can't follow.)
Last thought -- it's hard in books like this not to avoid a Dance-With-Wolves Effect -- where Aden magically becomes the MOST PROMISING MADRASA STUDENT after only a couple of months in the school, the MOST PROMISING SOLDIER after only a couple months of training, the ABSOLUTE FAVORITE OF VIRTUALLY EVERY LEADER-FIGURE in the book. To be fair, Wray attempts to explain some of this. The Madrasa where she studies is a backwater, village school ... so the classical Arabic she brings with her from the US charms everyone. But still ... you kinda walk away thinking: "Hey, you know who would make a great Muslim jihadist? A white teenage girl from the a
And fer Pete's sake ... collapsing into a romance at the end of her story? WTF? Is that the apotheosis of experience for a woman? With a weird Dido-and-Aeneas interlude in a cave no less? What drove the story in that direction? Okay, maybe daddy issues ... but maybe ... failure of imagination?
December 29, 2019
I'm dumbfounded. This has been such a difficult and mind-boggling read. I was wondering if I would be able to review it after all the chaos it had unleashed in my head, and yet here I am. Of all the topics the author could choose, I'm impressed and amazed that he was talented (read brave) enough to settle with this. He gave us a sneak-peek, nope scratch that, he gave us a first hand experience into a world we seldom read about in books. At least not the way it has been presented in GODSEND.
Aden Grace Sawyer is a girl who is fascinated by Islam, so much that she travels to Pakistan and enrolls herself in a poor Madrasa to learn all the ways of God. She takes the identity of a man and under the guise of Suleyman, she embarks on this journey in hopes of never looking back.
I was so so scared at every step she took. She was so determined and committed to her newfound faith that it shook me in ways I can't exactly explain. The novel begins with careful consideration and regards for the reader to absorb the story and then swiftly transcends into a thriller with a quicker pace. How easy it is to lose one's path and hit brick walls in its stead. What compels a teenage girl to leave behind everything she knows and embrace an unknown future in hopes of attaining certainty? The answer is right there in front of us if one chooses to see beyond the fog is doubt and isolation. I can't imagine the level of work and research the author had to put behind this to make it work the way it does. Lastly, I would like to praise the brilliant cover of this book because it just couldn't have been better and more apt.
Aden Grace Sawyer is a girl who is fascinated by Islam, so much that she travels to Pakistan and enrolls herself in a poor Madrasa to learn all the ways of God. She takes the identity of a man and under the guise of Suleyman, she embarks on this journey in hopes of never looking back.
I was so so scared at every step she took. She was so determined and committed to her newfound faith that it shook me in ways I can't exactly explain. The novel begins with careful consideration and regards for the reader to absorb the story and then swiftly transcends into a thriller with a quicker pace. How easy it is to lose one's path and hit brick walls in its stead. What compels a teenage girl to leave behind everything she knows and embrace an unknown future in hopes of attaining certainty? The answer is right there in front of us if one chooses to see beyond the fog is doubt and isolation. I can't imagine the level of work and research the author had to put behind this to make it work the way it does. Lastly, I would like to praise the brilliant cover of this book because it just couldn't have been better and more apt.
September 5, 2018
Godsend by John Wray is an excellent, thought-provoking read.
Most teenagers discover that their parents have feet of clay. Aden Grace Sawyer lives with her depressed, alcoholic mother. Her authoritarian father (a professor of Islamic Studies) has broken up the family. Teacher, as Aden calls him, has married the woman he had an affair with. Aden now sees him as apostate, a decadent American.
Rejecting her oppressive home life, Aden has turned to the clarity and stability of religious teachings in the Qur'an. Teacher has himself to blame. He took Aden to mosques at an impressionable age, when she needed values to cling on to. In another novel Aden would have joined a cult, experimented with drugs or become a goth. Her embracing Islam is a logical step.
Aden leaves California, ostensibly for the Emirates, with a view to learning more about her new way of life. In reality she travels to a madrasa outside Peshawar to learn the recitation, to memorise the Qur'an. Aden does not travel there as Aden, though. She disguises herself as a young man, Suleyman. Whether this is because she realises that she would be treated in a different way, or whether she identifies as a boy is unclear.
Aden's encounters with men suggests that she has Daddy issues that need to be resolved before she can become a well adjusted adult. She must also discover that men are all basically the same, regardless of faith and country, and equally capable of betrayal.
Most teenagers discover that their parents have feet of clay. Aden Grace Sawyer lives with her depressed, alcoholic mother. Her authoritarian father (a professor of Islamic Studies) has broken up the family. Teacher, as Aden calls him, has married the woman he had an affair with. Aden now sees him as apostate, a decadent American.
Rejecting her oppressive home life, Aden has turned to the clarity and stability of religious teachings in the Qur'an. Teacher has himself to blame. He took Aden to mosques at an impressionable age, when she needed values to cling on to. In another novel Aden would have joined a cult, experimented with drugs or become a goth. Her embracing Islam is a logical step.
Aden leaves California, ostensibly for the Emirates, with a view to learning more about her new way of life. In reality she travels to a madrasa outside Peshawar to learn the recitation, to memorise the Qur'an. Aden does not travel there as Aden, though. She disguises herself as a young man, Suleyman. Whether this is because she realises that she would be treated in a different way, or whether she identifies as a boy is unclear.
Aden's encounters with men suggests that she has Daddy issues that need to be resolved before she can become a well adjusted adult. She must also discover that men are all basically the same, regardless of faith and country, and equally capable of betrayal.
November 9, 2020
Meh.
This book didn't do anything for me. It was so lacking in that it made the characters completely cardboard, and I didn't connect with any of them. There was a total and complete lack of exploration of their motivations, wants, and needs, and I just felt like it completely lacked the necessary substance to make a good book. I wanted to understand the main character and her motivation, and why she would do what she did, but this book runs itself into so many dead ends. The exploration of cultural facets and the extremist ideology simply wasn't there.
It also read as an incredibly disconnected book, one where the author had no connection to the material being written, and it showed. There was so much here that was lacking, and I hated that there was such a gap between the worlds here. I just think that there was no capacity to write this book well from this voice, and it suffered for it.
This book didn't do anything for me. It was so lacking in that it made the characters completely cardboard, and I didn't connect with any of them. There was a total and complete lack of exploration of their motivations, wants, and needs, and I just felt like it completely lacked the necessary substance to make a good book. I wanted to understand the main character and her motivation, and why she would do what she did, but this book runs itself into so many dead ends. The exploration of cultural facets and the extremist ideology simply wasn't there.
It also read as an incredibly disconnected book, one where the author had no connection to the material being written, and it showed. There was so much here that was lacking, and I hated that there was such a gap between the worlds here. I just think that there was no capacity to write this book well from this voice, and it suffered for it.
February 4, 2019
Let's start by saying that I liked the idea of a girl converting to the islam and pretending to be a boy in order to be able to study at a madrassa (religious school) in Pakistan. But to be honest, that's all I liked.
I didn't get why exactly the islam appeals to her so much. It is never really made clear what her motivation is, apart from her having a lousy childhood and that she feels empty. Apparently, that's all it takes. Also, I don't understand why she changes her mind when it comes to fighting. At first she is totally against it, she just wants to study religious texts and she thinks her friend must be crazy for wanting to join the fighters. However, under the influence of an important man, she then suddenly decides to follow him into battle. And then there's a love story as well...
I'm sorry but it didn't convince me.
I didn't get why exactly the islam appeals to her so much. It is never really made clear what her motivation is, apart from her having a lousy childhood and that she feels empty. Apparently, that's all it takes. Also, I don't understand why she changes her mind when it comes to fighting. At first she is totally against it, she just wants to study religious texts and she thinks her friend must be crazy for wanting to join the fighters. However, under the influence of an important man, she then suddenly decides to follow him into battle. And then there's a love story as well...
I'm sorry but it didn't convince me.
October 19, 2018
Despite its’ dramatic subject (the conversion of a young American woman to Islam, her flight to Pakistan to study at a madrasa, and her subsequent involvement with the jihadists), Wray’s book is remarkably quiet in voice, and totally human. Aden Grace Sawyer disguises herself as a boy to accomplish her goals, and this hiding of her identity becomes all of a part with her exploration of her identity as she burns her American passport and immerses herself in Islam.
October 11, 2018
Great novel about an extraordinary young woman who leaves America and her family behind to follow a religion that calls to her, but for reasons she can’t entirety put a name to.
February 16, 2019
Anspruchsvolles Buch, konnte es nicht so einfach weglesen aber bin zufrieden. 8/10
Und ich weiß das meine Rezis hier ziemlich nichtssagend sind. Aber dafür nutzen ich dann Insta. Das hier ist einfach nur ein kurzer Eindruck :D
Und ich weiß das meine Rezis hier ziemlich nichtssagend sind. Aber dafür nutzen ich dann Insta. Das hier ist einfach nur ein kurzer Eindruck :D
September 29, 2018
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 4.5
The setting: "Inspired by the story of John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,"... 18-year old Aden Grace Sawyer, seeks to escape her hometown/parents/life and travel to Peshawar, Pakistan, to study the Quran/Islam at a madrasa. Her mother is an alcoholic. Her father, a professor of Islamic Studies, is an adulterer. She's incredibly disillusioned and begins going to mosques with her Muslim friend, Decker. She can't wait to leave.
Decker knows her secret--she is disguising herself as a young man for their travels. She becomes Suleyman. Bored at the madrasa, and likely always intending to leave it, to become a jihadi, she follows Ziar, the Mullah's son, into Afghanistan. There, she is confronted with many challenges--not the least of which is continuing to conceal her identity. I learned much about her [their] training regimen, tribal regions and tribal enmity, survival in the Afghani mountains and more.
Touted as a "coming-of-age" novel --but far beyond that. Loaded with information. Different groups of Muslim nationalities. Mujahideen. Her trek over the Mountain. "Dancing boys." So much packed in this slight volume.
Wray creates an engaging story of a disaffected youth who seeks self redemption as a Muslim. This compelling, well-written novel captured my attention. Recommend.
The setting: "Inspired by the story of John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,"... 18-year old Aden Grace Sawyer, seeks to escape her hometown/parents/life and travel to Peshawar, Pakistan, to study the Quran/Islam at a madrasa. Her mother is an alcoholic. Her father, a professor of Islamic Studies, is an adulterer. She's incredibly disillusioned and begins going to mosques with her Muslim friend, Decker. She can't wait to leave.
Decker knows her secret--she is disguising herself as a young man for their travels. She becomes Suleyman. Bored at the madrasa, and likely always intending to leave it, to become a jihadi, she follows Ziar, the Mullah's son, into Afghanistan. There, she is confronted with many challenges--not the least of which is continuing to conceal her identity. I learned much about her [their] training regimen, tribal regions and tribal enmity, survival in the Afghani mountains and more.
Touted as a "coming-of-age" novel --but far beyond that. Loaded with information. Different groups of Muslim nationalities. Mujahideen. Her trek over the Mountain. "Dancing boys." So much packed in this slight volume.
Wray creates an engaging story of a disaffected youth who seeks self redemption as a Muslim. This compelling, well-written novel captured my attention. Recommend.
January 26, 2019
Aden Grace Sawyer from California, 18 years old, finds herself increasingly disaffected with her affluent western lifestyle and turns to religion to provide her life with meaning. She decides to embark on Jihad and sets off for Pakistan. Apparently the author was inspired by a real-life Jihadist - John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban” -and ran with the idea of a young westerner embracing radical Islam. I found this a truly gripping and powerful exploration of what it actually means to become radicalised and so dedicated to a cause that you will do anything demanded of you. It’s an important and timely novel that attempts to explain the inexplicable. I’m not sure that I ever really understood Aden’s motivation, but perhaps that’s the point – no outsider can. In spite of the violent and explosive, literally, nature of the subject matter, it’s a quiet and measured book, almost mesmerisingly so, which avoids all sensationalism. I learnt a lot from it, as I expect many readers have, and feel that I have a slightly firmer grasp on the subject than I had before. Compelling reading indeed.
September 1, 2018
Here's proof that Godsend is thoroughly engrossing: I missed my subway stop while reading it. The story of Aden, an 18-year-old Californian and recent convert to Islam who disguises herself as a boy and heads to Pakistan, ostensibly to study the Qu'ran, Godsend is beautifully written, but the prose is never showy just for the sake of showiness. The reason I'm not giving it five stars is that I found a few of Aden's decisions implausible, even given what we learn about her faith and her background. They seem to have been made less by the character and more by the author to drive the plot. Perhaps when I reread the book (and I will; it was that thought-provoking and evocative), I'll be persuaded otherwise.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
October 6, 2018
Review to come.This book is unlike any other I've read. A young girl converts to Islam (pre-9/11) and travels to Pakistan for further study at a training camp. However, she knows the best way she can pull it all off is to pretend to be a young boy. The transformation is truly something to read, at times, even a bit difficult. It's a well-written novel, overall.
The book is a relatively quick read. The format of the dialogue in my NetGalley copy was a bit annoying to follow, but the dialogue itself was strong and advanced the story line.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley, but I wasn't required to leave a positive review.
The book is a relatively quick read. The format of the dialogue in my NetGalley copy was a bit annoying to follow, but the dialogue itself was strong and advanced the story line.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley, but I wasn't required to leave a positive review.
October 1, 2018
This compelling novel explores an issue we're seeing more and more- young people who choose to join jihadi movements. This is set pre-9/11 when it seemed impossible that an American would do it. What makes this unique is that Aden is a girl and that she must disguise herself as a boy to enter the madrasa and subsequently go on to Afghanistan. As implausible as it may seem that she can not only pull it off but also maintain that fiction, it's key to the story. The blurb that this was inspired by the Lindh case seems inappropriate. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
March 11, 2024
Interesting view in to a jihadist wannabe’s world. Kind of poetic and haunting. Nicely developed, believable and unique main character. But not as penetrating as ‘The Garden of Last Days’ by Debus (which is a masterpiece).
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