Jihadi: A Love Story


Book Description

A former intelligence agent is accused of terrorism, and his memoir assessed by an eccentric, erratic psychologist to establish the reality of an event that changed everything ... A beautifully written, mesmerising, shocking and sophisticated debut novel 'Smart and searing' Publishers Weekly 'Captivating, remarkably original ... it is a book of our time' Edward Wilson 'An exquisitely drawn debut that twists and turns to its stunning conclusion' Cal Moriarty ____________________ A former intelligence agent stands accused of terrorism, held without charge in a secret overseas prison. His memoir is in the hands of a brilliant but erratic psychologist whose annotations paint a much darker picture. As the story unravels, we are forced to assess the truth for ourselves, and decide not only what really happened on one fateful overseas assignment, but who is the real terrorist. Peopled by a diverse and unforgettable cast of characters, whose reliability as narrators is always questioned, and with a multi-layered plot heaving with unexpected and often shocking developments, Jihadi: A Love Story is an intelligent thriller that asks big questions. Complex, intriguing and intricately woven, this is an astonishing debut that explores the nature of good and evil alongside notions of nationalism, terrorism and fidelity, and, above all, the fragility of the human mind. ____________________ 'If it was Yusuf Toropov's intention to leave us pondering good and evil, right and wrong, love and loss, wondering who the good guys were, he certainly succeeded. I know one thing for sure, he's a wonderful writer and a born storyteller' Mari Hannah 'With echoes of Bellow, Pynchon and Kafka, Toporov's tale is a modern classic that challenges our perceptions at every turn' Cal Moriarty 'Jihadi is a gripping tale if a clash of cultures and individuals told with panache, dazzling wit and remorseless intelligence' Willian Ryan 'Intelligently written and multi-layered ... simply enchanting' Qaisra Shahraz 'Bold and skilfully executed ... bravely tackles a complex and timely subject' Frankie Gaffney




Undercover Jihadi Bride


Book Description

Previously published as 'In the Skin of a Jihadist' Twenty-year-old 'Mélodie', a recent convert to Islam, meets the leader of an ISIS brigade on Facebook. In 48 hours he has 'fallen in love' with her, calls her every hour, urges her to marry him, join him in Syria in a life of paradise - and join his jihad. Anna Erelle is the undercover journalist behind 'Melodie'. Created to investigate the powerful propaganda weapons of Islamic State, 'Melodie' is soon sucked in by Bilel, right-hand man of the infamous Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. An Iraqi for whose capture the US government has promised $10 million, al-Baghdadi is described by Time Magazine as the most dangerous man in the world and by himself as the caliph of Islamic State. Bilel shows off his jeep, his guns, his expensive watch. He boasts about the people he has just killed. With Bilel impatient for his future wife, 'Melodie' embarks on her highly dangerous mission, which - at its ultimate stage - will go very wrong ... Enticed into this lethal online world like hundreds of other young people, including many young British girls and boys, Erelle's harrowing and gripping investigation helps us to understand the true face of terrorism.




Terrorists in Love


Book Description

Drawing on unprecedented access, a leading terrorism expert profiles six terrorists to offer an astonishing new portrait of our enemies as we have never seen them before. Ballen offers an informed, urgent, and clear assessment of the true nature of this threat to America, allowing for a reasoned and effective response.




Just Another Jihadi Jane


Book Description




American Jihad


Book Description

Leading the second wave of post 9/11 terrorist books, American Jihad reveals that America is rampant with Islamic terrorist networks and sleeper cells and Emerson, the expert on them, explains just how close they are to each of us.




Undercover Jihadi


Book Description

The story of Mubin Shaikh, a Toronto native who was raised with twenty-first century, Western values, but for whom a chance encounter with the Taliban in Pakistan and then exposure to Canadian extremists resulted in a militant jihadi path--until he turned himself around and started working undercover with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, gathering inside information about the "Toronto 18's" plans for catastrophic terror attacks: to detonate truck bombs around the city of Toronto, behead the Prime Minister, and storm the Parliament Building in retaliation for Western intervention in Muslim lands.




Jihadi John


Book Description

It was a defining moment, the first time ‘Jihadi John’ appeared. Suddenly Islamic State had a face and the whole world knew the extent of their savagery. Weeks later, when his identity was revealed, Robert Verkaik was shocked to realise that this was a man he’d interviewed years earlier. Back in 2010, Mohammed Emwazi was a twenty-one-year-old IT graduate who claimed the security services were ruining his life. They had repeatedly approached him, his family and his fiancée. Had they been tracking an already dangerous extremist or did they push him over the edge? In the aftermath of the US air strike that killed Emwazi in November 2015, Verkaik’s investigation leads him to deeply troubling questions. What led Emwazi to come to him for help in the first place? And why do hundreds of Britons want to join Islamic State? In an investigation both frightening and urgent, Verkaik goes beyond the making of one terrorist to examine the radicalisation of our youth and to ask what we can do to stop it happening in future.




A Free Man: A True Story of Life and Death in Delhi


Book Description

"A deeply moving, funny, and brilliantly written account from one of India’s most original new voices." —Katherine Boo Like Dave Eggers’s Zeitoun and Alexander Masters’s Stuart, this is a tour de force of narrative reportage. Mohammed Ashraf studied biology, became a butcher, a tailor, and an electrician’s apprentice; now he is a homeless day laborer in the heart of old Delhi. How did he end up this way? In an astonishing debut, Aman Sethi brings him and his indelible group of friends to life through their adventures and misfortunes in the Old Delhi Railway Station, the harrowing wards of a tuberculosis hospital, an illegal bar made of cardboard and plywood, and into Beggars Court and back onto the streets. In a time of global economic strain, this is an unforgettable evocation of persistence in the face of poverty in one of the world’s largest cities. Sethi recounts Ashraf’s surprising life story with wit, candor, and verve, and A Free Man becomes a moving story of the many ways a man can be free.




I Was Told to Come Alone


Book Description

“I was told to come alone. I was not to carry any identification, and would have to leave my cell phone, audio recorder, watch, and purse at my hotel. . . .” For her whole life, Souad Mekhennet, a reporter for The Washington Post who was born and educated in Germany, has had to balance the two sides of her upbringing – Muslim and Western. She has also sought to provide a mediating voice between these cultures, which too often misunderstand each other. In this compelling and evocative memoir, we accompany Mekhennet as she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighborhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalized and the Iraqi neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shia turned against one another, and culminating on the Turkish/Syrian border region where ISIS is a daily presence. In her travels across the Middle East and North Africa, she documents her chilling run-ins with various intelligence services and shows why the Arab Spring never lived up to its promise. She then returns to Europe, first in London, where she uncovers the identity of the notorious ISIS executioner “Jihadi John,” and then in France, Belgium, and her native Germany, where terror has come to the heart of Western civilization. Mekhennet’s background has given her unique access to some of the world’s most wanted men, who generally refuse to speak to Western journalists. She is not afraid to face personal danger to reach out to individuals in the inner circles of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and their affiliates; when she is told to come alone to an interview, she never knows what awaits at her destination. Souad Mekhennet is an ideal guide to introduce us to the human beings behind the ominous headlines, as she shares her transformative journey with us. Hers is a story you will not soon forget.




Jihad and Death


Book Description

Islamic State has replaced Al Qaeda as the great global threat of the twenty-first century, the bogeyman we have all come to fear. But Daesh started as a local movement, rooted in the resentment of the Sunni Arabs of Iraq and Syria. It is they who have lost most in the geo-strategic shift in the balance of power in the region over the last thirty years, as Iranian-backed Shias have mobilised politically and advanced on the social and economic fronts. How has Islamic State been able to muster support far beyond its initial constituency in the Arab world and to attract tens of thousands of foreign volunteers, including converts to Islam, and seemingly countless supporters online? In this compelling intervention into the debate about Islamic State's origins and future prospects, the renowned French sociologist of religion, Olivier Roy, argues that the group mobilised a highly sophisticated narrative, reviving the myth of the Caliphate and recasting it into a modern story of heroism, death and nihilism, using a very contemporary aesthetic of violence, well entrenched amid a youth culture that has turned global and violent.