John Updike - Terrorist

From the Publisher: In this extraordinary novel Updike tells the story of 18-year-old Ahmad, whose devotion to Allah and the sacred words of the Qu ran, as revealed to him by the local imam, lead him to commit himself to an act of terror. Born of an Irish-American mother still searching through sensuous pleasures for her own fulfillment and an Egyptian father long since disappeared, Ahmad craves spiritual nurture and regards so contemptuously the self-indulgent society he sees around him in the faded town of New Prospect, New Jersey, overlooking Manhattan, that self-sacrifice seems a blessing. Neither the world weary, though well- intentioned, Jewish guidance counselor at the high school nor the mischievously seductive classmate Joryleene succeeds in deflecting Ahmad from his course. And inevitably he is drawn into an insidious plot.