The Submission Amy Waldman by Amy Waldman 9780374271565, 0374271569, B0056DTRNM instant download after payment.

In this deeply humane novel, the breadth of Amy Waldman’s cast of characters is matched by her startling ability to conjure their perspectives. A striking portrait of a fractured city striving to make itself whole, The Submission is a piercing and resonant novel by an important new talent.

"Moving... Eloquent... A coherent, timely and fascinating examination of a grieving America's relationship with itself."  -  The Washington Post

A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the victims of a devastating terrorist attack. Their fraught deliberations complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winner's name— and discover he is an American Muslim named Mohammad Khan. Instantly, they are cast into a roiling debate about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art and the meaning of Islam.

Khan's fiercest defender is the jury's sole widow -  the self-possessed and mediagenic Claire Burwell. As news of Khan's selection spreads, Claire finds herself under attack from outraged family members, story-hungry journalists, wary activists, opportunistic politicians and Khan himself. All will bring the emotional weight of their own histories to bear on the urgent question of how to remember, and understand, a national tragedy.

"As the consequences of the memorial decision accelerate towards tragedy the participants have to square the cost of multicultural compromises against the ideal of the US’s self-appointed role as the city upon a hill. It is a struggle Waldman depicts with both intelligence and wit, in accomplished prose. This is a deeply thoughtful and moving account of the myriad ways in which, when the towers came down, the US psyche became a casualty too."  -  Michael Prodger, The Financial Times UK

A striking portrait of a fractured city striving to make itself whole, The Submission is a piercing and resonant novel by an important new talent.