Nineteenth Hijacker
A Novel of 9/11
Through fiction we may gain insight into the conspirators and their methods which we cannot gain in any other way. By concentrating on the one human conspirator (human because he had a girlfriend), we can at least imagine how somebody from a good family could end up on that field in Shanksville.
--Governor Tom Kean, the Chairman of the 9-11 Commission
About the Book
Everyone knows what happened on September 11, 2001. But do we really know what was behind this act of war? What was the lure? What was it about the Hamburg cell that appealed to him? What lured this educated son of a successful Lebanese family to the jihadist message of destruction and annihilation that would result in the death of 3,170 Americans? These questions torment Sami Haddad as he pondered his choice in August of 2001—whether or not—to continue with the operation or flee to some far-flung place with his girlfriend.
Through a series of tape recordings which Sami had made in the months before the operation, he tells his beautiful and feisty Turkish-German lover, Karima Ilgun, of his first meeting with Muhammad Atta in Hamburg, of his training in Afghanistan under the watchful eye of Al Qaeda’s military chief, of his meeting with Osama bin Ladin where he swears his oath of allegiance, and of his final months of preparation in Florida where he comes to loath Muhammad Atta but cannot find the courage to flee.
A sense of doubt and skepticism suffuses his musings to her, but also of weakness.
Through a series of tape recordings which Sami had made in the months before the operation, he tells his beautiful and feisty Turkish-German lover, Karima Ilgun, of his first meeting with Muhammad Atta in Hamburg, of his training in Afghanistan under the watchful eye of Al Qaeda’s military chief, of his meeting with Osama bin Ladin where he swears his oath of allegiance, and of his final months of preparation in Florida where he comes to loath Muhammad Atta but cannot find the courage to flee.
A sense of doubt and skepticism suffuses his musings to her, but also of weakness.
Learn more about the book, listen/watch interviews in at the book landing page: https://www.the19thhijacker.com/
Praise
I've always thought a novelist's nightmare would be trying to deal with the terrorists who attacked America on 9/11. And what do you know, but James Reston Jr. did it! He imagined himself into the mind of "The 19th Hijacker" with such courage and writerly abandon, his book will leave you breathless. A masterpiece.
—Lucian Truscott IV, author of Dress Gray
James Reston, Jr. explores the inner life of a reluctant terrorist, an ambivalent participant in one of the greatest crimes of our time. Through three interconnected narratives, Reston transforms his subject from an abstraction into a human being with all the contradictions and flaws we might recognize in ourselves. Part romance, part detective story and part historical novel, The 19th Hijacker will inform and surprise readers with an original perspective that only a writer with Reston's wide range of scholarship can provide.
—Brent D. Glass, Director Emeritus, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
As counsel to Walid Bin-Attash, one of the 9/11 defendants, in Guantanamo Bay, I sat in close proximity to both Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and Ramzi Bin al-Shibh (two of the masterminds of the attack), who shared with me some of their thoughts about 9/11....The 19th Hijacker captures perfectly the minds of these men. The book does so in a way that does not evoke any sympathy for its main character or his girlfriend. ...At a time when young men and women from around the world are still drawn to radical Islam, it is important for all of us to understand the draw that recruiters sell to these young people. The book provides a unique view of the means and methods of the (terrorist’s) recruiters that hopefully can add to how to end such recruitment....A timely, legal and historical thriller.
--Edward B. MacMahon, super-lawyer and Guantanamo counsel
—Lucian Truscott IV, author of Dress Gray
James Reston, Jr. explores the inner life of a reluctant terrorist, an ambivalent participant in one of the greatest crimes of our time. Through three interconnected narratives, Reston transforms his subject from an abstraction into a human being with all the contradictions and flaws we might recognize in ourselves. Part romance, part detective story and part historical novel, The 19th Hijacker will inform and surprise readers with an original perspective that only a writer with Reston's wide range of scholarship can provide.
—Brent D. Glass, Director Emeritus, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
As counsel to Walid Bin-Attash, one of the 9/11 defendants, in Guantanamo Bay, I sat in close proximity to both Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and Ramzi Bin al-Shibh (two of the masterminds of the attack), who shared with me some of their thoughts about 9/11....The 19th Hijacker captures perfectly the minds of these men. The book does so in a way that does not evoke any sympathy for its main character or his girlfriend. ...At a time when young men and women from around the world are still drawn to radical Islam, it is important for all of us to understand the draw that recruiters sell to these young people. The book provides a unique view of the means and methods of the (terrorist’s) recruiters that hopefully can add to how to end such recruitment....A timely, legal and historical thriller.
--Edward B. MacMahon, super-lawyer and Guantanamo counsel