"The Garden of Last Days" Andre Dubus III

MediaPhile@evpl — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:49:00 GMT

The author of the award-winning and best-selling "House of Sand and Fog" returns after a long hiatus with this fictional recreation of the days leading up to 9/11.

Building on news reports that the men who would later take over the planes on that fatal day spent time in southern Florida strip joints in the last weeks of their lives, the author sets the first half of his novel in -- yes -- a strip joint.

There we meet a young stripper/mother trying to make a quick buck and retire to a decent way of life, an angry construction worker with a bad drinking problem, and a young terrorist hoping to figure everything out before he dies.

This is a sobering tale that, like "House of Sand and Fog," explores both the challenges that people from different cultures face in understanding each other and the irrational and explosive anger that will, if unchecked, build to unanticipated climaxes.

Books Blog : strippers, terrorism

"The Garden of Last Days" Andre Dubus III