the convert a tale of exile and extremism

The Convert, despite the implications of the subject matter, finds the irony, the humor and the greatly perplexing disunity in the struggles of the key players. A significant contemporary figure in Islamic-Western relations becomes human, with all the foibles and angst that word implies., Baker is a remarkable writer. Baker's investigation of Jameelah yields mysteries and surprises galore. In this superb biography, Baker makes it an argument worth our attention., Spellbinding.

Cutting back and forth between Margaret/Maryam's two perplexing lives, Baker gives us a miserable, privileged woman whose argument with her home was so strong that hers became one of the most trenchant voices of Islam's argument with the West. Sweeping books on the big wars can't do what this focused gaze on a single misfit so vividly accomplishes., is more than a biography it gets at the heart of the ongoing conflict between Islam and the West., In this unusual, sometimes funny and sometimes frightening biography Deborah Baker deftly explores the urgency and lunacy of conversion, Pakistan-and America's-romance with fundamentalism, and the necessity for a less blinkered vision of Islam., a new biography as absorbing as an excellent detective story. It is guaranteed to do the same to her readers., With remarkable even-handedness, Deborah Baker reveals the terrible costs of belonging exacted by two very different, battling cultures. The life story of Maryam Jameelah seems to have alternately fascinated, disturbed, and unsettled Deborah Baker. The story is telling is like a hall of mirrors in a fun house-full of so many distortions that the truth can come only in glimpses. is a cogent, thought-provoking look at a radical life and its rippling consequences., profoundly disorienting biography. If you like a biography with a twist, The Convert is for you., stellar biography that doubles as a mediation on the fraught relationship between America and the Muslim world. An important, searing, highly readable and timely narrative., This book is a beautiful illustration of a profoundly unique person, Maryam Jameelah. Opens the door to the vital questions of how radical Islam has impacted the world, and what part converts such as Jameelah have played.

The convert a tale of exile and extremism