Friday, July 13, 2007

2007 book 101

Diana Abu-Jaber's Origin
On paper this sounds like most any mystery book--a gifted forensic expert with an asshole ex-husband and a cadre of eccentric co-workers comes to believe that a series of SIDS deaths are actually baby murders. But Abu-Jaber takes this way beyond the formulaic mystery, as the forensic expert's own past (described as "improbable" by the book jacket, to which I'd add the adverb "wildly") starts to seem connected to the baby killer. The only other book by Abu-Jaber I've read before this was her memoir, The Language of Baklava, and I was expecting something this dark, unsettling--and yet completely compelling and, um, AWESOME. A, baby!

No comments: