UNRELIABLE NARRATORS IN YUSUF TOROPOV'S JIHADI




Yusuf's novel, JIHADI, has made the quarter finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. It features unreliable narration, and a brilliant central character, Theolonius Liddell, whose life experiences have resulted in both a need to excel and in mental illness. Another character suffers from inoperable brain cancer: The upshot is plenty of uncertainty and second guessing. Much of the beauty of the novel for the reader is trying to discern fact from fiction within the novel's narrative - although this great work operates on many levels, and the thrilling story can readily be taken at face value.

Download JIHADI at Amazon UK or at Amazon US, then read and review it now!

Comments

  1. Julia24 April 2014 at 08:26

    It does not sound like something I am aching to read, but I am sure there are people who would be very interested in this genre. It is also a unique talk on the letter U for the A to Z Challenge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Scribbler24 April 2014 at 17:05

      Thanks, Julia. It really isn't as confusing as I've described it, I have to say. It CAN in fact be read very superficially. I'm a rather poor critic myself, but I do feel that there is far more to it than meets the eye.

      Delete
    2. J Hanna24 April 2014 at 17:31

      I am sure it is good, but it sounds like a fantasy novel, yes? I am more of a historical fiction or contemporary fiction person myself.

      Delete
    3. Scribbler24 April 2014 at 22:04

      No, Julia. It's actually contemporary fiction, focusing on US foreign policy in the Middle East, among much else.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous5 May 2014 at 04:55

      Jolly good! My short stories "Sex and Desperate Hearts" is a bit more straightforward.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous5 May 2014 at 04:55

    Here's the link while its free til May 6 : http://t.co/RM1PTPff70

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: JIHADI A Love Story by Yusuf Toropov

Image
With a fantastic opening purportedly penned by a recently deceased narrator and edited via running commentary by a secondary narrator, JIHADI: A Love Story is written by Yusuf Toropov. The emotional intelligence of the main protagonist and the story itself are high on the list of pluses at the outset. Although many expectations are confounded throughout the story, the expectation of more confusion, while reading the opening pages, does not bear out. So if you find yourself asking: “What’s this about?”, just power on through the opening five pages. The quality of the writing will draw you in at the outset. But the plot is riveting, and it all starts to become fairly clear fairly quickly. It’s one of those novels that merits a second read not because of its difficulty, but because of the prose's beauty. In terms of plot, there is so much to it that there are things you may miss the first time out. Among much else, readers may find they are reading the novel for its story, and then
Read more

Dead Men Naked by Dario Cannizzaro

Image
Dario Cannizzaro’s narrator Louis, the protagonist of Dead Men Naked (available at Amazon ), loses his best friend Neil in a bizarre, seemingly hallucinogenic near-remote attack from an attic window as they stand in the same room, by Lou’s neighbour and a giant crow. Given the tequila and other substances taken, it is difficult to determine what exactly occurred through the narrator’s eyes. But Louis comes round the following morning worse-for-wear; he finds his friend’s body, realises that what happened was no dream, and summons the authorities to the scene. Strange beginnings complement a funeral where Neil’s parents end up consoling him as much as vice versa. On the trip, while Lou drowns his sorrows, he meets Mallory at a nearby, not-so-nearby dive, and begins an exploration of the spirit world. The journey is a theme in this novel, the roadside scenery described with a vivid and subtle poetry throughout. Also beautifully captured are aspects relationships – for instance,
Read more

The Survival Girls Book Review

Image
The Survival Girls book: http://thesurvivalgirls.com/ Among her other achievements, Ming Holden gained the top prize in a Glimmer Train fiction contest in 2013. The email announcing her win came into my busy inbox one morning last year, and I almost deleted it. I clicked on it, more to get it marked as read than anything else, and I glanced at some words of acceptance from the prizewinner of the latest story competition, with a quote from Madeleine Albright and something about the power of intentionality. “Politics and philosophy,” I thought. When I clicked through beyond the teaser (which DID NOT do her writing-advice piece justice, although quoting a Democrat-appointed cabinet secretary, and a bit of philosophy will - surprisingly - get me clicking at anything), there was a wonderful Obamaesque idealism in Holden’s jesuitical plea to write for others, once you have an intended readership in your head. That readership can be the EMO kids, the dispossessed, the refugees, the voice
Read more