31 Hours Blog Tour (Sept 15 - Sept 21)

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton
is currently on a virtual tour for Unbridled Books.

A woman in New York awakens knowing, as deeply as a mother’s blood can know, that her grown son is in danger. She has not heard from him in weeks. His name is Jonas. His girlfriend, Vic, doesn’t know what she has done wrong, but Jonas won’t answer his cell phone. We soon learn that Jonas is isolated in a safe-house apartment in New York City, pondering his conversion to Islam and his experiences training in Pakistan, preparing for the violent action he has been instructed to take in 31 hours. Jonas’s absence from the lives of those who love him causes a cascade of events, and as the novel moves through the streets and subways of New York we come to know intimately the lives of its characters. We also learn to feel deeply the connections and disconnections that occur between young people and their parents not only in this country but in the Middle East as well.

Carried by Hamilton’s highly-lauded prose, this story about the helplessness of those who cannot contact a beloved young man who is on a devastatingly confused path is compelling on the most human level. In our world, when a family loses track of an idealistic son an entire city could be in danger. From the author of The Distance Between Us. (Unbridled Books)

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31 Hours
Publisher/Publication Date: Unbridled Books, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-1932961836
240 pages

ARC Arrival: 31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

Publisher: Unbridled Books

I received this book from Caitlin at Unbridled Books - Thanks Caitlin!

About the book: When Carol Meitzner jolts awake in the middle of a long night, she knows--as surely as a mother can know--that her son, Jonas, is in danger.

His girlfriend doesn't understand why, but she knows she has somehow lost him. Jonas won't answer his phone. And no matter how carefully she shapes them, he won't return her messages.

His father says it can't be as bad as they fear.

But it is.

Jonas is in a safe-house beneath The Brooklyn Bridge. There, in the belief that he can change the world, he ponders his new found faith--and his specialized training. Over the next 31 hours, he will cleanse himself, mind and body, in preparation for the violent action he means to take when the subways are most crowded.

Jonas's isolation brings on an inevitable cascade of events. And as this stunning novel moves through the streets and subways of New York we see how lives can accidentally intersect--and how they might tragically fail to.

Carried by Masha Hamilton's elegant and powerful prose, 31 Hours is a compelling story about the helplessness and frantic hope of the people who can save Jonas -- and countless other -- if only they can reach him in time. (book jacket)

About the author: Masha Hamilton is the author of three previous novels: Staircase of a Thousand Steps (2001), a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection; The Distance Between Us (2004), named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal; and The Camel Bookmobile (2007), of which the New York Times said: "Hamilton makes us see how much is really at stake in a poverty-stricken place where every possession carries the weight of significance."

Hamilton worked as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press for five years in the Middle East, where she covered the intefadeh, the peace process and the partial Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. She then spent five years in Moscow, where she was a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and NBC/Mutual Radio. She reported from Afghanistan in 2004 and returned in 2008. (Unbridled Books)

31 Hours
Publisher/Publication Date: Unbridled Books, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-1-932961-83-6
229 pages