"Akhtar, the star and director of the 2005 terrorism dramaThe War Within, offers what promises to be one of the mostcomplex treatments of Muslim immigration and fundamentalism to comefrom an American-born (albeit first-generation) writer."(New York Magazine Boris Kachka)
"Whether you believe religion is a precious gift from God or thegreatest scourge of mankind, you will find yourself represented inthese pages. With brilliant storytelling and exquisitely balancedpoints of view, Ayad Akhtar creates characters who experience therapture of religion but also have their lives ripped apart by it."(Manil Suri, author of The Death of Vishnu and The Ageof Shiva )
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
Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. Hisnormal life of school, baseball, and video games had previouslybeen distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by thefrequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is tooyoung to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everythingchanges.
Mina is Hayat"s mother"s oldest friend from Pakistan. She isindependent, beautiful and intelligent, and arrives on the Shah"sdoorstep when her disastrous marriage in Pakistan disintegrates.Even Hayat"s skeptical father can"t deny the liveliness andhappiness that accompanies Mina into their home. Her deepspirituality brings the family"s Muslim faith to life in a way thatresonates with Hayat as nothing has before. Studying the Quran byMina"s side and basking in the glow of her attention, he feels anentirely new purpose mingled with a growing infatuation for histeacher.
When Mina meets and begins dating a man, Hayat is confused by hisfeelings of betrayal. His growing passions, both spiritual andromantic, force him to question all that he has come to believe istrue. 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, andemotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion andmodern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, andthrough Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces atwork on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This isan intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers longafter they turn the last page.
Ayad Akhtar is an American-born, first generationPakistani-American from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He holds degrees inTheater from Brown University and in Directing from the GraduateFilm Program at Columbia University, where he won multiple awardsfor his work. He is the author of numerous screenplays and was starand co-writer of The War Within, which premiered at the 2005Toronto Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent SpiritAward for Best Screenplay and an International Press AcademySatellite Award for Best Picture - Drama. American Dervishis his first novel.
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