The Good Son

The Good Son
by Michael Gruber
Henry Holt, 2010. 383 pgs. Fiction

When Sonia Laghari tries to convene a peace conference in Pakistan she and her fellow participants are kidnapped, the rich one ransomed out and the rest doomed to beheading, one at a time, when next "the infidels" strike against civilians. In Washington, Sonia's son Theo, a Special Ops soldier recovering from battle wounds takes semi-official leave from the Army to set up and carry out a rescue scheme. Simultaneously, one Cynthia Lam, an NSA translator overhears transmissions supposedly discussing the movements of nuclear materials in Pakistan which she is sure are bogus bait, but which her superiors take seriously. Shifting viewpoints take us expertly through these converging stories as Sonia, a Christian-Muslim-Jungian therapist works on her captors with religion, psychology, and dream interpretation and Theo and his father work against Cynthia because they need the army to think something fissile is about to happen in the Taliban stronghold where the captives are being held. Even better than this complex, suspenseful plot, however, are the rich characterizations, not only of the people involved but of the irreconciliable differences of societies at war. Masterful storytelling--an important book.