MARWAN: The Autobiography of a 9/11 Terrorist

An Egyptian city planner, a timid Saudi pilot, a boy from the United Arab Emirates who worshipped sex, not Allah, and a young Lebanese student who had gone to a Christian school: How did these very different men with very different ideas come to fly the 9/11 planes? How did the plot develop, and who developed it?

"Marwan," a novel by Aram Schefrin, is a taut, well-paced exploration of a key episode in contemporary history. It is suspenseful, illuminating, and brilliantly balanced between the compelling narration of known facts - from the group's first coming together in Hamburg, Germany, to the moments before the jets they were to hijack took off - and an imaginative response to unanswered questions.