Just Another Jihadi Jane: A Novel Excerpt

JUST ANOTHER JIHADI JANE follows the radicalization of two young girls growing up in a working-class Muslim neighborhood in the UK. Ameena and Jamilla become close followers of a Jihadi matron deeply involved in the Syrian insurrection—serving a cause they believe has been distorted by Western media. The girls slowly realize that their new reality is a narrow, brutal universe apart from the one they had imagined. Tabish Khair's chilling, heart-wrenching tale paints a frightening portrait of religious fanaticism—and the terrible cost of survival.

Tabish Khair is a critically acclaimed author and poet whose recent novels have been shortlisted for the Encore Award (UK) and the Crossword Prize (India). He has won the All India Poetry Prize, and his novels have been shortlisted for various major awards and translated into several languages. The Thing about Thugs was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize (2010) and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature (2012). His works include Where Parallel Lines Meet (2000) and How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position (2012). Having worked as a journalist in India, he currently teaches English at Aarhus University, Denmark.

"Insightful, compelling, a must read." —Amitav Ghosh, author of SEA OF POPPIES

"Wise, nuanced . . . Jamilla’s haunting, searing experience does not read like a work of fiction. This is not just a writer’s nightmare:it is ours." —Liz Jensen, author of THE NINTH LIFE OF LOUIS DRAX