Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press/Minotaur Books and Dreamscape Media for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this beautifully-written book by Peter Blauner, wonderfully narrated by Sean Rohani - 5 stars!
In the form of letters written to his grandson, Alex, Ali Hassan tells Alex about his own past, hoping to persuade Alex to come home. Alex had been accepted to an Ivy League university when he left home and refused contact with his parents, instead taking up with a radical Muslim group fighting what they consider to be a holy war in the Middle East. Ali tells Alex about his time as a young man in Egypt with his eyes on a movie career in Hollywood. When Cecil B. DeMille comes to make The Ten Commandments, Ali gets a job as an assistant. However, he unwittingly gets involved in political unrest, threatening his and his family's lives.
This was such a fascinating read - Ali's letters tell of a time of political turmoil and how easy it is to be persuaded to do the wrong things, while we alternately read Alex's letters to his grandpa showing him following a similar destructive path. As one who always watched The Ten Commandments on Easter, I enjoyed reading about the making of the film and the portrayal of the actors and director. All of these characters in this book are so well developed; I felt so much for them. I also loved the relationship between Ali and Alex, a connection so different from a parental one. Ali was desperate to get Alex to learn from his mistakes, but did it in a way that let Alex find his own way back. Highly recommended - a blockbuster of a story!
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