The Mirage: A Novel [Hardcover]

Matt Ruff (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 7, 2012

A mind-bending novel in which an alternate history of 9/11 and its aftermath uncovers startling truths about America and the Middle East

11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.

The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C. . . .

Summer, 2009: Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured suicide bomber. The prisoner claims that the world they are living in is a mirage—in the real world, America is a superpower, and the Arab states are just a collection of "backward third-world countries." A search of the bomber's apartment turns up a copy of The New York Times, dated September 12, 2001, that appears to support his claim. Other captured terrorists have been telling the same story. The president wants answers, but Mustafa soon discovers he's not the only interested party.

The gangster Saddam Hussein is conducting his own investigation. And the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee—a war hero named Osama bin Laden—will stop at nothing to hide the truth. As Mustafa and his colleagues venture deeper into the unsettling world of terrorism, politics, and espionage, they are confronted with questions without any rational answers, and the terrifying possibility that their world is not what it seems.

Acclaimed novelist Matt Ruff has created a shadow world that is eerily recognizable but, at the same time, almost unimaginable. Gripping, subversive, and unexpectedly moving, The Mirage probes our deepest convictions and most arresting fears.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Cult favorite Ruff’s past novels, including Fool on the Hill (1997) and Bad Monkeys (2007), are all wildly, thrillingly different, but they do share one recurring characteristic: they are total brain-twisters but in a good way. His latest is an alternate history that depicts the U.S. as a Third World country rent by religious strife, while the United Arab States are still reeling from the events of November 9, 2001, when Christian fundamentalists hijacked four planes and took down the Tigris and Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad. In this world, Osama bin Laden is a war hero and senator, while Timothy McVeigh is the revered leader of a rebellious Christian sect. Three Arab Homeland Security agents have their hands full, forced to deal not only with the duplicitous politics of various government agencies but also with suicide bombers and their recent claims that the world they are living in is a mirage. Like Robert Ferrigno in his Assassin trilogy, Ruff enthusiastically upends world history, offering provocative commentary while grounding his story with a highly appealing Muslim cast. --Joanne Wilkinson

Review

“A unique and compelling read.” (The Associated Press )

“Like Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, the premise behind Ruff’s alternate-history novel is chilling.” (The New York Post )

“An unnerving but intriguing premise forms the backbone of Matt Ruff’s latest novel, The Mirage, one of the most daring 9/11-inspired novels to emerge after that horrific day (The Seattle Times )

“Ruff embraces his twisty concept with an attention to detail that suggests many months, more likely years, of fervent research. . . . He is a world-class world builder who, perhaps better than any other writer, can create exotic, mysterious worlds and communicate their unique rules and consistent logics.” (The Stranger )

“A funhouse-mirror mash-up where H.G. Wells and Graham Greene collide with The Arabian Nights and The Matrix. . . . Ruff dizzies and dazzles the reader with a fantastic-and fantastical-story.” (BookPage )

“Sci-fi/fantasy/post-cyberpunk cult author Matt Ruff imagines an alternate world in which Arabia becomes the earth’s dominant superpower and America is a dictator-led, fundamentalist backwater. More than half the fun here comes from discovering all of the intricately clever consequences Ruff derives from that simple premise.” (Details )

“The alt-historical framework is in many ways the best and most entertaining part of the book, and you want it to expand beyond the mere 400 pages of The Mirage.” (Seattle Weekly )

“Furious entertainment. . . . It echoes Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union or Steven Barnes’s Lion’s Blood, but more comparisons will be made to Philip K. Dick’s World War II reimagining The Man in the High Castle.” (The Onion's AV Club )

“If you amalgamated the methodical, punctilious, world-building skills of Ian McDonald with the reality-distortion powers of Philip K. Dick and then folded in the satirical, take-no-prisoners savagery of Norman Spinrad, you might be able to produce a book approximating The Mirage.” (Barnes and Nobles Review )

“That The Mirage shares DNA with airport-kiosk genre exercises is nothing to be ashamed of. A good thriller is hard to pull off. The ingredients are clear enough: propulsive action, sympathetic characterization, and enough detail to ground the story without slowing things down.” (The Philadelphia City Paper )

“This book quite successfully challenges the ideas of Christian moral supremacy and the unchallenged political agenda of superpowers. It is a deeply satisfying novel which excites hopes of a long and productive career for this young writer.” (Examiner.com )

“The Mirage is an intriguing addition to the genre . .. . Ruff spices up his tale with a wealth of arresting details. . . . Ruff keeps you reading, [out of] eagerness to see what twist he’ll think of next.” (The New York Times Book Review )

“An audacious new novel. . . . . The Mirage is a topsy-turvy tour de force, another winner from a truly inventive and unpredictable storyteller.” (The San Francisco Chronicle )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (February 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061976229
• ISBN-13: 978-0061976223
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Bold And Audacious Premise, But Individual Components Might Be Stronger Than The Whole December 30, 2011

By K. Harris HALL OF FAMETOP 10 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

With its inspired premise, I can easily imagine that Matt Ruff's alternate history version of the 9/11 tragedy is sure to generate much interest. Upon reading the book's description, I was instantly intrigued and I tore into the novel with great anticipation. And, in truth, I devoured it in a couple of sittings--which is something that I rarely do. And yet, while I admired much about the book, I'm not sure that it ultimately fulfilled all of its potential and promises. Don't get me wrong, I'd recommend the book in a heartbeat just for its skewed world view, but the payoff lacked a bit for my taste. Ruff had big ambitions and paints a colorful world, and I wanted to love this book unequivocally. But while Ruff's vision entertained and fascinated me, it's whole falls somewhere short of the strength of its individual pieces. Part alternate history, part fantasy, part cop investigation, part political and social satire--there are a lot of disparate elements fighting for attention within the pages of "The Mirage." And while I enjoyed the separate components, I'm not sure they always sat comfortably together.

There's not a lot that one can say about "The Mirage" without revealing its surprises. So I'll be purposefully vague beyond a cursory description. The novel is set in the aftermath of a 11/9/2001 terrorist attack in the United Arab States. Ruff sets up an environment where everything that we know about our own 9/11 event is upended and relocated into this fictional time and place. The primary story revolves around agents within the Arab Homeland Security branch who thwart an attack in 2009 and recover some evidence that references an alternate timeline where America is a superpower and it was the victim of a 9/11 incident. But what does this outlandish story that contradicts everything in the contemporary world really mean? The agents start to track down the truth and along the way they interact with the usual suspects including Hussein and bin Laden (among many other recognizable and notorious personalities) as they exist and prosper in this alternate history of the world.

It would certainly be easy to spoil many of the novel's intricacies, and that would be a shame. One of the primary strengths is that we never know exactly where we're headed in Ruff's twisted tale. I really enjoyed the structure of the story, the chapters are separated by very entertaining mock-ups of Wikipedia pages (although they aren't called that). The satiric elements of the novel can be highly amusing. Songs, TV shows, and popular culture events all mirror various counterparts within contemporary American society. But while they're funny, they can also come across as a bit of a stunt as the tone of the book seems to be striving for something deeper and darker. The history elements are never less than fascinating, although they are contrived to incorporate as many familiar names as possible in key roles. This can also come off as less than genuine, but it's fun. The agents are defined well and their exploits can be thrilling and dangerous. But the ultimate solution to the novel's many puzzles left me oddly unfulfilled.

Even though "The Mirage" was not wholly successful for me, I would still recommend it to anyone who thinks it sounds fascinating. It may not be the contemporary classic I was hoping for, but it definitely spins a different story that has the potential to capture your imagination in a variety of ways. I'd give the idea of "The Mirage" a BIG five stars! But in an uneven execution, I'd rate the experience (for me) at about 3 1/2 stars. KGHarris, 12/11.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious, imaginative, yet something of a letdown April 5, 2012

By Richard Stoehr VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

'The Mirage' is kind of like one of those movies that looks really good when you see the trailer, but ends up being something less than it could have been.

There's a core of a good idea here - a world flipped on its head from what we know, where the UAS (United Arab States) is the center of the civilized world and what we think of as America is a disorganized, chaotic assembly of warring factions reduced to third-world conditions. Terrorist attacks on the twin towers in Baghdad on 11/9 have had wide-reaching political effects, and mysterious artifacts begin to surface on the popular auction website eBazaar that suggest another reality - a mirage of a world we will find very familiar.

It's an ambitious idea, to be sure, and in some ways carried out well. Through the eyes of an Arab Homeland Security agent, a complex story unfolds and we see the world as it might have been. Familiar faces show up in new roles, a litany of name-dropping that becomes a little too much: Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Timothy McVeigh, David Koresh, and the list goes on. It makes sense for a while, but eventually it becomes a bit more than coincidence can explain.

The depth of the changes are fairly impressive too, and clearly a lot of thought went into causes and their probable effects. I enjoyed these touches, even as I felt Ruff was taking a bit too much time to explain them. He doesn't quite commit the sins of Dan Brown - bringing the story to a screeching halt to explain a simple concept at length - but 'The Mirage' does get bogged down in some places, especially early on.

Once the story picks up, its entertaining enough and has a reasonably good ending. The ideas alone carried me through the rough parts, but I never felt fully engaged by the characters or the story. And while the ending was satisfying, there lingered a feeling that it pulled its punch. What could have been something truly thought-provoking ended on a shrug.

'The Mirage' lives up to its name - it beckons from a distance and looks too good to be true. And upon reading it, though the vision still enchants, the reality is something of a disappointment.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Novel Experience April 13, 2012

By Nickolas X. P. Sharps VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

At first glance THE MIRAGE by Matt Ruff struck me as irreverent and offensive. I was offered a chance to read the book for free through the Amazon Vine program and I passed it up. A couple weeks later I ended up coming across a review of THE MIRAGE that made me pause and think. From there the desire was planted and I ended up purchasing a copy, reasoning that even if it turned out to be a terrible novel at least I could write a scathing condemnation of it. As it turns out, not only is THE MIRAGE an excellent novel, but it is also everything a thriller should be.

On November 9th, 2001 four jetliners are hijacked by Christian fundamentalists. Three find their targets: the Tigris and Euphrates World Trade Centers and the Arab Defense Ministry. The passengers of the fourth prevent the terrorists from reaching Mecca. This attack ignites a War on Terror, led by the United Arab States. Years later Mustafa al Baghdadi, agent for Arab Homeland Security, captures a suicide bomber. The man claims that the world they are living in is a Mirage, and in the "real" world it is America that is a superpower and the Middle East that is a third world country. So begins a thrilling investigation that will uproot the very foundation of everything Mustafa knows and believes.

So you can see where I may have been a little hesitant to read THE MIRAGE. The very concept is audacious and twisted and more than a little intriguing. At first it seems like a delicious sort of heresy, an act of adolescent rebellion. As it turns out though, THE MIRAGE is anything but adolescent and heretical. Though bold and original, Ruff's thriller turns out to be introspective and thoughtful, and at times even humorous.

The story is told mainly from the perspective of Mustafa al Baghdadi, though there are also chapters that follow his Homeland Security partners Salim and Amal as well. Mustafa is a likable lead, a dedicated law enforcer with somer serious regrets. Salim and Amal are also decent characters with fleshed out back stories but they do seem to lack a little in the personality department. Really though, it's the supporting cast that makes THE MIRAGE such a colorful and fun book. In this alternate reality Saddam Hussein is gangster, Osama bin Laden is a Senator of the United Arab States, and al-Qaeda is an ultra covert counter terrorist unit. There are more fun cameos throughout but I won't ruin their appearances by announcing them here.

The investigation is well handled, giving readers a guided tour of a world that is a delight to explore. Ruff's alternate reality is clever and colorful. The pop-culture references are particularly witty, specifically the television crime dramas and punk rock bands. Things are foreign but still recognizable and much of the time I found myself smirking as I read. Another sharp technique Ruff utilizes to tell the story is the inclusion of excerpts from the Library of Alexandria (the alternate reality Wikipedia). These excerpts are superb world building tools that offer background knowledge and set the stage for the chapters that precede them.

The aspect of the Mirage itself is handled very well. I had wondered how Ruff would pull off the alternate history explanation but he did not fail to disappoint. The investigation leads Mustafa and his friends from Baghdad to Sadr City, all the way across the Atlantic to the D.C. Greenzone and surrounding territories. The adventure is full of non-stop thrills and world shaking revelations. I regret to say that the finale turned out to be a letdown.

THE MIRAGE is a ballsy thriller the likes of which you have never read. Thoughtful and witty, Ruff crafts a novel experience that is sure to make you stop and reconsider your place in the world.

Recommended Age: 16+
Language: Some words but very minimal.
Violence: Shooting, nothing extra gory.
Sex: None

Nick Sharps
Elitist Book Reviews