Homecoming holds feelings of warmth, family, times gone by; but, in Iraq, August 2002, homecoming can mean something quite different, and time can become a ticking clock counting down life itself. This, then, is the disturbing context within which THE RECKONING tells its unsettling and heroic story of one woman’s struggle to understand her own past, while trying to survive her present.
Journalist Theresa Fuller has epilepsy, but this hasn’t slowed her search for stories of injustice to broadcast to the world. When she is captured inside Iraq in August 2002, and imprisoned by Iraq’s secret police, she is cut off from her medication. Seizures resume, and dreams of her American expatriate childhood in Baghdad begin to haunt her. Tormented by the relentless Colonel Badr, she only finds relief in her growing attraction to Tariq al-Awali, the Iraqi captain who took charge of her capture. The more she learns of him and his family, however, the clearer her troubling dreams become, and the more puzzling her past. Before U.S. bombs begin to fall and all of Iraq is thrown into even darker chaos, Theresa must find a way to escape the cruelty of Colonel Badr, and save those she cares for most.
This is a gritty and wrenching tale that is both a blistering commentary on the cruelties of modern despotism and a tribute to the enduring power of forgiveness and redemption. THE RECKONING, the 2009 Indie Book Award Winner for Multicultural Fiction, opens a window into every human heart to reveal the power of the human spirit.
A tale of love and betrayal set on the eve of the Iraq War
I am so looking forward to reading your book. Although I was a classmate of Leslie’s I have not been in touch with her but am thrilled to be given the opportunity to read your book. I have read through your blog and found it fascinating. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to more entries.
I find the older I get the more I gravitate to books about the M.E. and the culture we grew up in. Somehow I can’t remember how long you were at ACS, but I thought perhaps you weren’t there throughout your high school years. Am I correct?
Take care,
Karen, It’s great to link up with you. I was at ACS for my last two years of high school (’71-’73). If you’re on Facebook, you should add me as a friend. Then I can hook you up with lots of ACS alumni. Unfortunately, Leslie isn’t one of them. She likes keeping a low profile in terms of the internet. Anyway, I hope you find “The Reckoning” a worthwhile read.