The 2011 American Book Award Winner* "The Submission" is a backwards look at the pysche and soul of an American public that will never stop grieving 9-11. Published a decade after the attacks, author Amy Waldman imagines a world where the design of the 9-11 Ground Zero memorial is open to anonymous submissions (hence the story's name) and the winner turns out to be a *gasp* American Muslim. In this story's case the winning architect is a non-practicing, non-fasting, decidely lower case muslim (in reality the actual real-life 9-11 architect was an Israeli-American)
But as the memorial committee and the wider American public grapples with this news, the novel's name turns out to be an exploration of the varied range of "submission": from the translation of islam as submission to God, to what submission within the context of compromise means for anyone.
Waldman has a journalist's eye for detail and speech and has penned an engrossing novel that does the hard work of not offering an easy ending but instead forcing the reader to grapple with their own assumptions, doubts, and memories.
*I didn't even know that the American Book Award was a thing.
*I didn't even know that the American Book Award was a thing.
Note to self: write a post on all the book awards out there.
See our 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.
Key References for Further reading:
Architect and 9-11 Memorial Both Evolved Over the Years
The History Behind the 9-11 Memorial
Other books by Amy Waldman:
See our 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.
Key References for Further reading:
Architect and 9-11 Memorial Both Evolved Over the Years
The History Behind the 9-11 Memorial
Other books by Amy Waldman:
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