31 Hours [Hardcover]

Masha Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2009

A woman in New York awakens knowing, as deeply as a mother s blood can know, that her grown son is in danger. She has not heard from him in weeks. His name is Jonas. His girlfriend, Vic, doesn t know what she has done wrong, but Jonas won t answer his cell phone. We soon learn that Jonas is isolated in a safe-house apartment in New York City, pondering his conversion to Islam and his experiences training in Pakistan, preparing for the violent action he has been instructed to take in 31 hours. Jonas s absence from the lives of those who love him causes a cascade of events, and as the novel moves through the streets and subways of New York we come to know intimately the lives of its characters. We also learn to feel deeply the connections and disconnections that occur between young people and their parents not only in this country but in the Middle East as well. Carried by Hamilton s highly-lauded prose, this story about the helplessness of those who cannot contact a beloved young man who is on a devastatingly confused path is compelling on the most human level.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hamilton's gorgeous and complex fourth novel tracks the 31 hours before Jonas, a sensitive young man raised by idealistic parents (now divorced), straps on a vest of explosives and enters the New York City subway system to martyr himself. The novel begins with Jonas's mother, Carol, knowing, with a mother's instinct, that something is very wrong with her son. Thus begins an odyssey that takes her back to her ex-husband, Jake; to Jonas's girlfriend, Vic; and, finally to the authorities. Hamilton touches on many perspectives, including that of Vic, a dancer who is shocked that her longtime friendship with Jonas recently turned to love; Vic's younger sister, Mara, who tries to fix their parents' failing marriage; Sonny Hirt, an especially perceptive homeless man who senses something is very wrong on the subway where he's panhandling. Through all of this, Jonas ritually prepares for this final act of his life, but without the single-minded fanaticism one expects. It's a very tense narrative, vividly imagined and eerily plausible. (Sept.)
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Review

“Hamilton has used both her considerable empathy as a writer and her experience in the Middle East to create an intimate portrait of 21-year-old Jonas Meitzner. It's not easy to like him for what he intends to do, much less admire him, but Hamilton makes us aware of his humanity…Sensitive, lonely and full of the anger and doubt many young people feel, Jonas seems in Hamilton's hands not a stranger, not an impenetrable figure of dread whose behavior is beyond our understanding, but the ordinary, fragile child of ordinary, fragile people. You don't exactly want to look at the story of what happens to Jonas, but Hamilton has made it very hard to tear your gaze away.”—The Washington Post

“Riveting…. a potent psychological analysis on the true meaning of loyalty -- to friends, family members and country -- and what any of us, given the chance, would to do to uphold it.”—The Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“Highly readable…keeps us engaged most with the desire to answer the standard thriller question: Can the killer be stopped?...Hamilton arrays her characters smartly, then points them toward the subway…Women, in particular, will inhale this book.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“One of the best novels I’ve read this year.”—Carol Fitzgerald, founder, BookReporter.com

“Gorgeous and complex….a very tense narrative, vividly imagined and eerily plausible.”—Publishers Weekly

"How much can we ever know the ones we truly love? So asks Masha Hamilton in her riveting new novel, 31 HOURS. It kept me up all night, and left me in tears."—Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Sleep Toward Heaven, Love Stories In This Town

“Fascinating.”—Booklist

“A literary novel that is also as suspenseful as a thriller. "31 Hours" is Hamilton's third book, and while the phrase "break-out book" is often bandied about too easily, Hamilton has written something singular…Masha Hamilton’s new book has the pace of the most entertaining thriller, the information of an educational documentary, the compassion of an enlightening text, and the coherence of an artwork.”—The Book Studio

“Asks questions that have plagued our nation since the 2001 terrorist attacks.”—Cleveland Scene

“You don’t just read this gut-wrenching book; you become part of it in a deep, primal way. Hamilton’s story is so real and so raw, it takes over your thoughts and feelings and never lets go. We need to start a global book club and make this its first selection.” —Lois Alter Mark, StyleSubstanceSoul.com

"Masha Hamilton uncovers the complex humanity behind the horror of terrorism. Read it for the exquisite craft, but also for the entry into a world that’s often splashed in the headlines, but seldom so brilliantly revealed." —Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble and Coming Back to Me

"A book of hope, despair and yearning that stays with you far beyond the final page. This book is poetic, frightening, and absolutely impossible to put down. Masha Hamilton is one of my very favorite writers, and stories like this are the reason why." —Laura Fitzgerald, author of Veil of Roses and One True Theory of Love

“Equal parts thriller and poetry, Masha Hamilton’s 31 Hours had me turning pages late into the night and thinking about its startling conclusion long after I’d read the last page. In compelling readers to reconsider how we think about terrorism, this beautiful novel will provoke understanding, and perhaps even inspire us toward much-needed change.”—Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters

“In 31 Hours, Masha Hamilton tells the poignant story of mothering a misguided, idealistic, puzzling yet familiar young man in today's alarming political climate. It is a deep meditation on the roots of terrorism – and how closely related they can be to one's own family and home. The title is straightforward yet fraught with meaning; the gorgeous prose that follows wastes neither a phrase nor a sigh.”—Barbara Fischkin, author of Muddy Cup and Confidential Sources

“Hamilton’s novel raises many thought-provoking questions, which makes it a strong choice for book clubs and for readers who enjoy character-driven fiction with contemporary political relevance.”—Library Journal
“Without giving anything away, the ending can, and certainly may, spark discussion. (I can picture this book being discussed in a classroom setting.)…Hamilton masterfully sets up the tension until you, as a reader, get to the point of finishing a chapter and looking at your watch to see if you have time to fit in another. It’s like every character is a grain of sand spiraling down an hour glass. They slowly come closer and closer together until they all meet in the middle…Hamilton’s mastery of words will pull you in and not let you go.”—minnesotareads.com

“Brilliantly understated...as stark and quietly terrifying as anything I have read recently....A thriller in every sense of the word, it is also a work of literary fiction, a cautionary tale for the times taking place somewhere at this moment and for the foreseeable future.”—bookreporter.com

“Sometimes, even after the last word is read and the final page turned, a book is so full of unique and deftly drawn characters that they seem to continue living, free of the pages, ink, and binding that contained them. Masha Hamilton’s 31 Hours is such a book, and each character, no matter how brief the appearance, is so vibrant and fascinating that the idea of the end of the book, the end of the reader’s ability to follow them as they live their lives, feels like a deep and tragic loss.” —Bookgeeks.co.uk

“I highly recommend 31 Hours … I’m still thinking about this haunting novel. Hamilton makes astute observations about human nature, the current political and social climate in the U.S., and she does this through characters that I truly came to care for and worry about.” —Julie McGuire, fiction editor, Internet Review of Books

“Gripping…I read with an increasing sense of urgency as the clock ticked down the thirty-one hours to the story's climax.”—Food for Thought

“Perceptive and cohesive throughout, 31 Hours makes for tautly-building suspense.”—Blogcritics.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Unbridled Books; 1 edition (September 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932961836
• ISBN-13: 978-1932961836
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #707,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Masha Hamilton, currently serving as the Director of Communications, U.S. Embassy, Kabul, is the author of four acclaimed novels with a fifth, WHAT CHANGES EVERYTHING publishing in June 2013. Her most recent, 31 Hours (Unbridled Books, 2009), an Indie Choice pick by independent booksellers, was called "gorgeous and complex." by Publishers Weekly. "You don't just read this gut-wrenching book; you become part of it in a deep, primal way," wrote StyleSubstanceSoul.com founder Lois Alter Mark. Hamilton is also the founder of two world literacy programs: the Camel Book Drive, begun in 2007 to supply a camel-borne library in northeastern Kenya, and the Afghan Women's Writing Project, begun in 2009 to foster creative and intellectual exchange between Afghan women writers and American women authors and teachers.

Her previous novels include Staircase of a Thousand Steps (2001), a Booksense pick by independent booksellers and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection; The Distance Between Us (Unbridled Books, 2004), named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal; and The Camel Bookmobile (2007), also a Booksense pick. Booksense called it an excellent book club selection, and the New York Times said: "Hamilton makes us see how much is really at stake in a poverty-stricken place where every possession carries the weight of significance."

She worked as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press for five years in the Middle East, where she covered the intefadeh, the peace process and the partial Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Then she spent five years in Moscow, where she was a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, wrote a newspaper column, Postcard from Moscow, and reported for NBC/Mutual Radio. She wrote about Kremlin politics as well as life for average Russians under Gorbachev and Yeltsin during the coup and collapse of the Soviet Union. She reported from Afghanistan in 2004, and returned in 2008. In 2006, she traveled in Kenya to research The Camel Bookmobile and to interview street kids in Nairobi and drought and famine victims in the isolated northeast.

A Brown University graduate, she has been awarded fiction fellowships from Yaddo, Blue Mountain Center, Squaw Valley Community of Writers and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. She teaches for Gotham Writers' Workshop and has also taught at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and at a number of writers' workshops around the country. She is a licensed shiatsu practitioner and lives with her family in Brooklyn.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative story about a missing son will haunt readers August 12, 2009

By Christina Lockstein TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton is a story that will haunt readers long after the covers are closed. Carol Meitzner wakes up suddenly one night with a mother's intuition that something is incredibly wrong with her twenty-one year old son, Jonas. She hasn't heard from him in over a week, which is unusual for the close pair, but this goes beyond the normal worries of a mother. For the next 31 hours, she will try to find him before something, she doesn't know what, goes irrevocably wrong. While Carol looks for Jonas, he is secreted in a small basement apartment preparing to take an action that will force the entire nation to rethink its violent nature. Hamilton's provocative book is a stunning read. Despite Jonas' terrible intentions, Hamilton has made him sympathetic to readers. He's not a brainwashed automaton or frenzied monster; his intent is clear (at least to him) and while he goes through periods of fear, he never considers backing out or changing his mind. It's Jonas' realism that makes him so frightening; he could be any college student who feels disenfranchised with the United States. Hamilton keeps the suspense drawn so tightly that there were entire chapters where I forgot to breathe, only catching a breath with the blank page at the end of a chapter. Brilliantly written, this is a book that won't let the reader go easily.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A thriller in every sense of the word September 14, 2009

By Bookreporter

Format:Hardcover

Suicide bombers are a fact of life in the contemporary world. They are rarely political zealots, though they are recruited by such. They are the easily led, the disaffected, the mentally disadvantaged members of what Karl Marx referred to as the lumpen proletariat. The fact that attacks by these individuals, unfortunately led astray, have not been successful in the United States has been the direct and proximate result of the internal security that the chattering classes have demeaned almost from its inception; still, sooner or later, one will succeed here. And it will probably unfold in the manner described in 31 HOURS, Masha Hamilton's brilliantly understated novel.

Jonas Meitzner is the prototype useful idiot of 31 HOURS. Hamilton creates a picture of this twenty-something disaffected youth perfectly, without resorting to caricature. One cannot read a paragraph or two about Jonas without immediately recognizing him as one of the many graduate students who one will trip over when walking more than 20 feet in any direction. As the book opens, Jonas's mother, Carol, realizes she hasn't spoken to her son for a while and senses something is wrong. Anyone who is the parent of an emancipated offspring will know this feeling immediately; one either gets it or doesn't, and as painted by Hamilton, it is entirely believable. Carol stews for a bit, and then turns to Vic, Jonas's longtime friend who has recently become his lover. Vic, wrapped up in preparation for her debut as a classical dancer, realizes even before Carol contacts her that she also hasn't seen Jonas lately.

It turns out that Jonas has deserted his own apartment for an Islamist safe-house apartment. First attracted to, and then recruited by, Masoud, a Wahabi terrorist, and now cut off from everyone, Jonas is physically and mentally preparing himself for a political statement that will take place on the streets of New York at the end of the novel. He hopes his parents and Vic will understand.

Jonas's parents divorced when he was young. His mother is a sculptor, and his father is a failed artist turned successful (or maybe not) gallery owner. Their relationship is slippery and ill-defined, yet somehow still there. At one point, Carol confesses to noticing a change in Jonas over the few months leading up to the events that unfold, yet marked it only in hindsight. Vic has recently moved out of her parents' house, and her father has done the same, abandoning a comfortable home to live in what would have been called at one time (uncharitably but accurately) a slum. She is wrapped up in her career as well, and is able to give only scant attention to Jonas and her younger sister, who is on the cusp of adolescence and probably affected most of all by her parents' separation and her mother's mental decomposition.

Vic's life is seemingly solid at the center --- her upcoming performance is sure to be a winner --- but is fraying badly at the edges. She perhaps has the best chance of stopping the fateful journey that Jonas has chosen to take, yet abandons it in worship of the god of political correction. It is ironic, then, that the only characters in the novel with any sort of structure to their lives are Masoud and Sonny Hirt, a street person by choice who senses that something dark and terrible is about to take place.

The conclusion of 31 HOURS is as stark and quietly terrifying as anything I have read recently, not only for the abruptness of its ending but also for the realization that it is but one of several stories momentarily alluded to yet not told. A thriller in every sense of the word, it is also a work of literary fiction, a cautionary tale for the times taking place somewhere at this moment and for the foreseeable future.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Terror within and without in 31 Hours September 24, 2009

By Jennifer J. Stewart

Format:Hardcover

I think that what I like best about Masha Hamilton's writing is that she takes me places I wouldn't normally go, and opens my eyes to things that I should see. In that sense, her prose is unblinking, simultaneously lyrical and stark. Hamilton takes what is universal--for instance, a mother worrying over her 21-year-old son who she hasn't seen or talked to in awhile--and transforms it, so that the reader feels viscerally what each and every character feels, from a prescient panhandler making his rounds on the subway, to an 11-year-old girl whose parents have split up and whose mother tailspins into depression. Then there is Jonas, the subject of all the worry, a boy-man who wants to change the world, and has been suborned into doing it violently. Hamilton makes even this believable. And that was before I even read my morning newspaper about the recent foiling of a terrorist plot.

I know the ending is going to haunt me.