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An urgent, fiercely intelligent debut novel that goes deep inside the daily lives of two women-one in Rome, the other in North Carolina-to tell a story about the powerful interconnections, both personal and political, that exist beneath the surface of our world.
For years, Amira- a recent convert to Islam living in Rome-has gone to work, said her prayers, and struggled to piece together her husband's redacted letters from the Moroccan black site where he is imprisoned. She moves as inconspicuously as possible through her modest life, doing her best to avoid the whispered curiosity of her community.
Meanwhile, Mel-once an activist-is trying to get the suburban conservatives of her small North Carolina town to support her school board initiatives, and struggles to fill her empty nest. It's a steady, settled life, except perhaps for the affair she can't admit she's having.
As these narratives unfurl thousands of miles apart, they begin to resonate like the two sides of a tuning fork. And when Mel learns that a local charter airline serves as a front for the CIA's extraordinary renditions-including that of Amira's husband-both women face wrenching questions that will shape the rest of their lives.
Written with piercing insight and artistry, Planes is a singular, assured, and indelible first novel that announces a major new voice. How do you come home from an atrocity? Peter C. Baker's absorbing, closely observed novel follows two couples, an ocean apart-one wounded by a war crime, the other just starting to reckon with being implicated in it-as they try to find a way to live in the aftermath. Baker's offbeat, suggestive strategy is to let the stories intertwine, so that subtle resonances emerge: variations on the themes of patience, misdirection, forgiveness, and exasperation that play in every marriage. Planes is an insightful book about the slow, zigzag work of healing that nonetheless moves at the speed of a thriller.
For years, Amira- a recent convert to Islam living in Rome-has gone to work, said her prayers, and struggled to piece together her husband's redacted letters from the Moroccan black site where he is imprisoned. She moves as inconspicuously as possible through her modest life, doing her best to avoid the whispered curiosity of her community.
Meanwhile, Mel-once an activist-is trying to get the suburban conservatives of her small North Carolina town to support her school board initiatives, and struggles to fill her empty nest. It's a steady, settled life, except perhaps for the affair she can't admit she's having.
As these narratives unfurl thousands of miles apart, they begin to resonate like the two sides of a tuning fork. And when Mel learns that a local charter airline serves as a front for the CIA's extraordinary renditions-including that of Amira's husband-both women face wrenching questions that will shape the rest of their lives.
Written with piercing insight and artistry, Planes is a singular, assured, and indelible first novel that announces a major new voice. How do you come home from an atrocity? Peter C. Baker's absorbing, closely observed novel follows two couples, an ocean apart-one wounded by a war crime, the other just starting to reckon with being implicated in it-as they try to find a way to live in the aftermath. Baker's offbeat, suggestive strategy is to let the stories intertwine, so that subtle resonances emerge: variations on the themes of patience, misdirection, forgiveness, and exasperation that play in every marriage. Planes is an insightful book about the slow, zigzag work of healing that nonetheless moves at the speed of a thriller.