Paula is the author of In the Name of God (Roaring Brook Press/Holtzbrinck Group, Spring 2007) - ISBN: 1-59643-211-X
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Biography:
I was already en route to Syria when someone told me that banks and hotels there would accept only cash—no traveler’s checks. A few hours later I found myself standing alone on a street corner in downtown Damascus, a huge pink suitcase at my feet, no money, no friends, no place to go. Scared to death would have been the sensible reaction, but well, when have I ever been sensible? I was exhilarated, in the center of an exciting city so different from the small New England town where I’d grown up, and I had no doubt that things would work out. Sure enough they did. A kind Syrian family stopped, invited me home for tea and breakfast, explained how I could change those traveler’s checks on the black market and helped me plan my own personal invasion of the Arab World.
Over the next ten years, my experiences in the Middle East were varied and far flung. I clunked along the backroads of Khartoum in a donkey cart, I spent a luxurious night in the most expensive hotel in Casablanca. One afternoon I argued hermeneutics with professors in Jordan; a few years later, I was surrounded by Yemeni Bedouin, AK47s pointing in my direction, just for taking out my camera. I loved living in the Arab World because every day was an adventure. And because I had tons of opportunity to sit around, drink innumerable cups of sweet tea, and just talk. (I like to talk almost as much as I like to write.) Over time, I came to see how the US and the Arab World could be so apart on so many issues. I didn’t always agree with people but at least I got their arguments.
When I came back home, and decided to write a book, I wanted to fill it with the people I knew: passionate, deeply religious, politically aware. In the Name of God came out of my experiences in the Arab World, but also out of the realization that Arabs are as diverse as Americans in their thoughts, beliefs and hope for the future.
Book: In The Name of God
That’s what they want, isn’t it, for us to take it out on each other and let them operate on the margins of civilization? Why shouldn’t Fowzi speak out against injustice? Who was I to discourage him? No, my anger was directed at the proper targets now—the men who’d beaten my cousin, the superiors who’d ordered his arrest, the corrupt leaders who’d set up a system that benefits them and nobody else. Someone has to take control, right? Someone has to help the Muslims.
I’ve already decided that that someone will be me.
17-year-old Nadia is an excellent student, daughter, and sister, but above all strives to walk the straight path and follow the laws of Islam.
Living in Damascus, Syria, she’s conflicted about her Westernized peers, the internal economic, social and political struggles of her country, and the war raging in Iraq. When her cousin is arrested by the Syrian authorities for speaking out, Nadia finds herself drawn into the dark world of Islamic fundamentalism, eventually contemplating the ultimate sacrifice to take a stand for her people and her religion.
In The Name of God is an enlightening and nuanced story about life in the Middle East, as well as a fascinating exploration of one of the most talked about issues of our day.
Book Info:
- ISBN (Hardcover): 1-59643-211-X
- ISBN-13 (Hardcover): 978-1-59643-211-6
- Release date: April 3, 2007
- Pages: 208
Reviews:
Coming soon.
In the Name of God