The Mirage, (Paperback)

from TheAmpersand

On the face of it, it sounds like a pretty terrible idea: write a book in which the identities of the victims and perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks were all switched around! Also, make it a genre mishmash that freely combines thriller and speculative fiction elements. At worst, a project like this...

from lycomayflower

The Mirage begins in a world related to ours but very different. The United Arab States (UAS) is the dominate superpower in the world, and North America is divided into several nations, including The Evangelical Republic of Texas, the Rocky Mountain Independent Territories, and the Christian Stat...

from nmele

Matt Ruff's novels have always surprised me, and this one did, too. At first, I was strongly reminded of Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" because of the Muslim detectives and the alternate history of the world of the novel. Ruff leads in ways a little deeper and stranger than a th...

from lisapeet

Honestly, I'm still not sure what to say about this one. There is some unbelievably awkward plotting here, and a whole bunch of Ruff having fun with his reverse world alt-9/11 premise at the expense of the audience's eye-rolling abilities, but it's still a weirdly compelling little thriller at th...

from SamSattler

I don't care what you say. This one will, at least at first, make you feel a bit uncomfortable. In the tradition of the best alternate history fiction, Matt Ruff uses The Mirage to turn history on its head in a way that makes one think. American readers, in particular, will be forced to do some s...