31 Hours

31 Hours

Masha Hamilton

Language: English

Pages: 240

ISBN: 160953011X

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


A woman in New York awakens knowing, as deeply as a mother’s blood can know, that her grown son is in danger. She has not heard from him in weeks. His name is Jonas. His girlfriend, Vic, doesn’t know what she has done wrong, but Jonas won’t answer his cell phone. We soon learn that Jonas is isolated in a safe-house apartment in New York City, pondering his conversion to Islam and his experiences training in Pakistan, preparing for the violent action he has been instructed to take in 31 hours. Jonas’s absence from the lives of those who love him causes a cascade of events, and as the novel moves through the streets and subways of New York we come to know intimately the lives of its characters. We also learn to feel deeply the connections and disconnections that occur between young people and their parents not only in this country but in the Middle East as well.

Carried by Hamilton’s highly-lauded prose, this story about the helplessness of those who cannot contact a beloved young man who is on a devastatingly confused path is compelling on the most human level. In our world, when a family loses track of an idealistic son an entire city could be in danger. From the author of The Distance Between Us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in the right sleeve and a slogan reading, “Bud, King of Beers,” who’d spent a year and a half as a novice monk, living in a monastery near Lhasa in a room the size of a walk-in closet, trying to make sense of things. That was the way he’d expressed it, without elaboration: “Trying to make sense of things.” Then he’d decided to shove it in and come back home, where he’d ended up in a class with Jonas and they’d begun talking food. “New Yorkers wolf down breakfast and lunch and only slow down for

have laughed. Now she wasn’t sure. Truth be told, part of what nagged at her now was a fear that he’d stopped calling not out of forgetfulness or busyness but as an intentional act, that he’d lumped her in with all the rest, all those he thought were shells of beings, committing or acceding to violence in their half-sleep; those he disdained; those he was sure he would never resemble. And though she knew they could survive this, the two of them, and that he would mature and pass through it,

arm through the air for a second, some kind of a ritual Jonas didn’t understand. He shook his head and then returned to stand next to the cameraman. “Go ahead,” he said to Jonas. Jonas took a sip of the tea. He put down the cup and straightened his back. “Tomorrow I will be a—a martyr,” he began. “I will be a martyr, yes, and I want to say . . . well, first, I’m doing this of my own will. It’s my free decision.” He remembered Masoud had told him once during training that this declaration was

yes. Jonas’s . . .” “I just wanted to let you know I’ll be mailing you something. Please keep your eye out for it.” Vic had begun pacing as Masoud spoke. “An invitation or something?” she asked. “It should arrive in three days.” “Do you need my address?’ “Jonas gave it to me.” “Jonas?” Her voice rose. “Is Jonas—” “May the night watch over you, Victoria.” “Wait, wait, wait,” she said, but Masoud hung up as she was speaking. She went to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water. She

she didn’t want to wake her mom, and then she closed the door as quietly as she could, turning the handle first. “Let’s go.” She led the way to the elevator, and Aaron followed. He followed as she walked out the building, down the street, and around the corner to the subway station. Before she reached the stairs, she slowed and turned to talk to Aaron, but she weighed too little to anchor herself and felt herself being gently carried forward through the narrowing of foot traffic at the subway

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