The Submission: The World After 9/11

The Submission is a novel that illustrates the wide-ranging impact of 9/11. Written by Amy Waldman, who was co-chief of the New York Times' South Asia bureau, it is a surprisingly intriguing read, a page-turner that gets your emotions pinballing as you empathize with characters who all have completely different viewpoints and motivations.

The novel opens with a great premise: a group of jurors, composed mostly of artists, academics, and wealthy New Yorkers, have been commissioned to select a design for a 9/11 memorial two years after the attack. The entries are all anonymous, so after the jurors pick the winning design, they realize they have a problem. The architect of the winning design is named Mohammad Khan.

Oddly enough, the one person on the jury who champions Khan's selection is Claire Burwell, a woman who lost her husband in the attack and was asked to represent the 9/11 families on the jury. She thinks the design is perfect for the memorial and barely reacts when she finds out the architect is a Muslim. However, a faction of the 9/11 families led by Sean Gallagher, who lost his firefighter brother during the rescue efforts, protest Khan's selection and attack Claire's seemingly frigid and unemotional stance. In addition, there are the vociferous Islamophobes who let loose death threats, protests, and picket lines, craving media attention for their vile rhetoric.

Caught in this maelstrom is Khan, a man who is a thoroughly secular Muslim, born and raised in America, who is startled to discover that his country is turning on him. Even liberals whisper that they are uncomfortable with the choice, and Khan has to join forces with the Muslim American Coordinating Coucil to try and get his work to speak for itself. However, once his design is dissected to reveal possible "Islamic influences," things  can only get worse.

My favorite character is a Bangladeshi woman whose husband worked as a custodian in the World Trade Center - when he is killed, she has to fight for the right to have his name listed among the dead and receive compensation for her and her newborn son, because they were illegal immigrants. There is also a scheming governor whose support for the memorial depends solely on the opinions of her electorate and she tries her best to use every twist and turn in the process to get her approval rating up. And along the way, Mohammad Khan and Claire Burwell undergo a complex evolution as they struggle to understand what stance they should be taking and whether they should bend to public opinion.

The Submission weaves together the stories of memorable characters to tackle the problem of honoring the 9/11 victims amidst social, cultural, and political uncertainty. Waldman writes crisply with a great ability to describe her characters and their circumstances. Her description of the Bangladeshi woman's life in Brooklyn is shockingly spot on and it is clear that Waldman's experience in the South Asis bureau has been put to good use when she has to describe the true nature of Islam versus the terrorists' version. Overall, this is a nuanced and well-crafted novel that illuminates the need to reflect on people's inherent prejudices, opinions, and actions in this post-9/11 world.