"Akhtar, the star and director of the 2005 terrorism drama
The War Within, offers what promises to be one of the most
complex treatments of Muslim immigration and fundamentalism to come
from an American-born albeit first-generation writer."
New York Magazine Boris Kachka
"Whether you believe religion is a precious gift from God or the
greatest scourge of mankind, you will find yourself represented in
these pages. With brilliant storytelling and exquisitely balanced
points of view, Ayad
內容簡介:
Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His
normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously
been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the
frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too
young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything
changes.
Mina is Hayat''s mother''s oldest friend from Pakistan. She is
independent, beautiful and intelligent, and arrives on the Shah''s
doorstep when her disastrous marriage in Pakistan disintegrates.
Even Hayat''s skeptical father can''t deny the liveliness and
happiness that accompanies Mina into their home. Her deep
spirituality brings the family''s Muslim faith to life in a way that
resonates with Hayat as nothing has before. Studying the Quran by
Mina''s side and basking in the glow of her attention, he feels an
entirely new purpose mingled with a growing infatuation for his
teacher.
When Mina meets and begins dating a man, Hayat is confused by his
feelings of betrayal. His growing passions, both spiritual and
romantic, force him to question all that he has come to believe is
true. Just as Mina finds happiness, Hayat is compelled to act --
with devastating consequences for all those he loves most.
American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and
emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and
modern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, and
through Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces at
work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is
an intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers long
after they turn the last page.
關於作者:
Ayad Akhtar is an American-born, first generation
Pakistani-American from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He holds degrees in
Theater from Brown University and in Directing from the Graduate
Film Program at Columbia University, where he won multiple awards
for his work. He is the author of numerous screenplays and was star
and co-writer of The War Within, which premiered at the 2005
Toronto Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit
Award for Best Screenplay and an International Press Academy
Satellite Award for Best Picture - Drama. American Dervish
is his first novel.
目錄:
Prologue: 1990
BOOK ONE: PARADISE LOST
1. Mina
2. A Still, Small Voice
3. The Opening
4. A New World
BOOK Two: NATHAN
5. Love at First Sight
6. The Dervish
7. Jews and Us
8. Independence Day
9. The Hypocrites
BOOK THREE: PORTRAIT OF AN ANTI-SEMITE AS A BOY
10. The Mosque on Molaskey Hill
11. The Turn
12. Fever Dreams
13. Acts of Faith
BOOK FOUR: MINA THE DERVISH
14. Sunil the Absurd
15. The Farewell Begins
16. Nikah
17. The Long Unraveling
Epilogue: 1995