Critically acclaimed author Pearl Abraham follows a young surfer/skater on a distinctly American spiritual journey that begins with Transcendentalism and countercultural impulses, enters into world mysticism, and finds its destination in Islam.

An avid, near six-foot-tall surfer, John Jude Parish cuts a striking figure on the beaches of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. When he isn’t on water, John lives on wheels, a self-described skate rat-grinding and kickflipping with his friends, and encouraged by his progressive parents. His hero is the great explorer, Richard Burton, his personal prophet is Bob Dylan, and his world is wide open — to new ideas, philosophies, and religions.

Through online forums and chat rooms, John meets a young woman from Brooklyn who spurs his interest in Islam and Arab literature. Deferring Brown University for a year, he moves to New York’s idyllic borough to study Arabic. Like Burton, John embraces the experience heart, body, and soul — to submit to Islam, practice the salaat, fast and meditate, dance with dervishes, and encounter the extraordinary. Burton lived the life of a 19th century adventurer, but he also penetrated the ancient wisdom of secret worlds. John will too — with unforeseen consequences.

Perched on the eve of September 11th, in the first year of the 21st century, American Taliban gives voice to the historical echoes that reveal the unknowable other as entirely familiar, even homegrown.

Pearl Abraham uses her gifts of psychological acuity and uncommon empathy to depict a typical upper-middle-class family snared by the forces of history, politics, and faith. Provocative, unsettling, and written in a brilliantly inventive refreshingly original voice, American Taliban is poised to become one of the most talked about novels of the year.

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Pearl Abraham is the author of The Seventh Beggar, Giving Up America, and The Romance Reader, and the editor of an anthology about Jewish heroines in literature, Een sterke vrouw, wie zal haar vinden?. Her stories and essays have appeared in newspapers, literary quarterlies and anthologies. Abraham teaches literature and creative writing at Western New England College and lives in both Springfield, MA, and New York City.

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