A Poet and Bin-Laden

A Poet and Bin-Laden is a novel set in Central Asia at the turn of the twenty-first century against a swirling backdrop of Islamic fundamentalism in the Ferghana Valley and beyond.

The story begins on the eve of 9/11, with the narrator's haunting description of the airplane attack on the Twin Towers as seen on TV while he is on holiday in Central Asia. Subsequent chapters shift backward and forward in time, but two main themes emerge: the rise of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan under the ...