Spy thriller set in the USA and Middle East
- Book: Jihadi
- Location: Middle East, United States (USA)
- Author: Yusuf Toropov
Jihadi is a book that really challenges perspectives – and makes you think. The quality of the writing is exceptional…
On one level Jihadi is a conventional spy thriller. Thelonius Liddell is a US intelligence agent engaged in covert operations in the ‘Islamic Republic’. He is caught and interrogated and, eventually, falls in love with Fatima, his interpreter, as his marriage to Becky crumbles. Fatima’s life is then endangered by regime change with personal consequences for her family members… Thelonius (now a convert to Islam) is transferred out of the ‘Islamic State’ and held without charge in a secret overseas prison.
So far, so conventional. But Jihadi is much more than this… The book challenges the reader to declare who he believes. Are we looking at a Big American Satan challenging a religion it doesn’t understand – or are we looking at a vicious and duplicitous regime (Islamic in name only…) intent on embarrassing the US? None of the main characters is entirely believable… (as in you can believe them…). The story is murky. Both Thelonius and Becky have mental health issues, and both may sometimes be deluded and irrational. Fatima is also conniving and, perhaps, not as innocent as we might imagine. Thelonius writes his story while in detention – with home made ink on smuggled paper. It is discovered after his presumed death and heavily annotated by the psychologist who was interviewing him. Her notes paint a much darker picture… but do they come from ‘fact’ or her own agenda? She listens to music and finds meaning in the lyrics to support her views. [Incidentally, music is Yusuf’s other passion – he has the psychologist quoting from the lyrics of Beatle songs – having himself published ‘Who was Eleanor Rigby: and 908 more Questions and Answers About The Beatles’ in 1996!]
No doubt at all the Jihadi is a great and thought provoking book – and that we will be hearing a lot more about and from Yusuf.
Over on our blog we chat to the author:
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