Children of Dust

“[Eteraz’s] adventures are a heavenly read.” —O, the Oprah magazine

“In this supremely assured, lush, and rip-roaring book, Eteraz manages to do the impossible, gliding confidently over the chasm that divides East and West. Wildly entertaining…memoir of the first order.” —Murad Kalam, author of Night Journey

Ali Eteraz’s award-winning memoir reveals the searing spiritual story of growing up in Pakistan under the specter of militant Islamic fundamentalism and then overcoming the culture shock of emigrating to the United States. A gripping memoir evocative of Persepolis, Reading Lolita in Tehran, and the novel The Kite Runner, Eteraz’s narrative is also a cathartic chronicle of spiritual awakening. Yael Goldstein Love, author of Overture, calls Children of Dust “a gift and a necessity [that] should be read by believers and nonbelievers alike.”

Promised to God before he was born, Ali Eteraz’s life was a thirty-year journey through faith, doubt, and the chasm dividing East and West.

• Spiritual Memoir: Born to fulfill a holy covenant made in Mecca, Eteraz chronicles his search for identity—from a Pakistani madrassa to the Bible Belt, from fundamentalist fervor to the front lines of Islamic reform.
• East Meets West: A bracingly honest look at the immigrant experience, navigating the cultural and spiritual whiplash between a childhood in Pakistan and a new life in post-9/11 America.
• Faith and Doubt: A journey through many identities—Abir ul Islam, the Promised; Amir, the American; Abu Bakr Ramaq, the Fundamentalist—in a quest to reconcile the man he was raised to be with the man he must become.
• Islamic Reform: A powerful, firsthand account of taking on extremism from within, offering a vital perspective on the internal struggle for the soul of a global faith.