The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
Due out this coming Tuesday, July 31st. Pre-order through your local bookstore's website, or just, you know, go there.
R.O. Kwon's 'The Incendiaries' is a quick, gripping novel about identity and faith. The plot is an attempt by college student Will Kendall to rationalize his former girlfriend's involvement in a terrorist group. We know what is going to happen, but the reader is still drawn into Will's story.
Will meets Phoebe Lin early on in their college career, and is dazzled by her, but ultimately unable to prevent her recruitment by a charismatic former student named John Leal into a new age club. A scholarship student, he has felt compelled to manufacture his own identity and cannot respond until its too late.
Kwon challenges the reader to confront extremism and religious and racial identities by presenting John and Phoebe's stories as well as Will's before the novel runs its course. A surprising book, I'll be interested in hearing other people's reactions.
