The Submission, Amy Waldman
The Submission, Amy Waldman
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The Submission

Author: Amy Waldman

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged: 12 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/01/2011


Synopsis

Claire Harwell hasn't settled into grief; events haven't let her. Cool, eloquent, raising two fatherless children, Claire has emerged as the most visible of the widows who became a potent political force in the aftermath of the catastrophe. She longs for her husband, but she has found her mission: she sits on a jury charged with selecting a fitting memorial for the victims of the attack. Of the thousands of anonymous submissions that she and her fellow jurors examine, one transfixes Claire: a garden on whose walls the names of the dead are inscribed. But when the winning envelope is opened, they find the designer is Mohammad Khan—Mo—an enigmatic Muslim-American who, it seems, feels no need to represent anyone's beliefs except his own. When the design and its creator are leaked, a media firestorm erupts, and Claire finds herself trying to balance principles against emotions amid escalating tensions about the place of Islam in America. A remarkably bold and ambitious debut, The Submission is peopled with journalists, activists, mourners, and bureaucrats who struggle for advantage and fight for their ideals. In this deeply humane novel, the breadth of Amy Waldman's cast of characters is matched by her startling ability to conjure individual lives from their own points of view. A striking portrait of a city—and a country—fractured by old hatreds and new struggles, The Submission is a major novel by an important new talent.

About Amy Waldman

Amy Waldman was co-chief of the South Asia bureau of the New York Times. Her fiction has appeared in the Atlantic and Boston Review and is anthologized in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010. She lives with her family in Brooklyn.

About Bernadette Dunne

Bernadette Dunne is the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on August 13, 2012

Although I was once a New Yorker and had family members on the scene of 9/11 in NY and DC (all thankfully safe), I am not a 9/11 obsessive or fanatic (Both My Former Hometowns Were Terrorized and I All I Got Was Two Wars, the Patriot Act and This Lousy T-Shirt.) Like a low-key take on "Bonfire of th......more

Goodreads review by Ed on September 09, 2011

A Muslim American named Mohammad "Mo" Khan wins a blind design contest for NYC's WTC memorial? That premise alone tells Amy Waldman's debut novel is a work of fiction, but the events that swirl around the submission proves to be an all too true examination of post-9/11 America. I found the novel to......more

Goodreads review by Booksaremyboyfriends on January 09, 2012

I felt this book on a visceral level. It sucked me in, lit a rage fire in my belly, drove me up the wall, and broke my heart. A panoramic depiction of a series of fictional post-9/11 events, this is an important book for Americans to read. And don't let the adjective "important" trick you into think......more


Awards

  • Kirkus Reviews “New and Notable Title”
  • Entertainment Weekly Best Book
  • NPR Best Book
  • Washington Post Notable Book
  • Esquire Magazine Best Book of the Year
  • Kirkus Reviews Top 25 Book
  • Barnes & Noble Best Book
  • PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award
  • Guardian First Book Award
  • Orange Prize
  • New York Times Book Review Notable Book