Picture in the Sand by Peter Blauner

PICTURE IN THE SAND by Peter Blauner is an intriguing work of historical fiction. The novel alternates between 1954 Egypt and present day. The majority of the story is told by Ali Hassan, grandfather to Alex (call me Abu Suror) who has been radicalized and has left the States to be with his brothers in arms. Ali Hassan establishes tenuous contact with Alex via email and begins to relate his own life story: infatuation with films and a young wanna-be starlet, production assistant on The Ten Commandments movie, and involvement in religious and political dissent in Egypt. Featuring well-known people like Cecil B. DeMille and Gamal Abdel Nasser, Blauner provides an engrossing look at inflated egos, terrorist plots, and power struggles in Egypt from a time when, according to Blauner, “many historians say the rise of radical Islam, al-Qaeda and ISIS began.” Although sometimes violent (readers are warned early on that a main character loses an eye), this is a suspenseful thriller combined with an excellent coming of age story. Ali Hassan writes to his grandson, “It’s painful and deeply unsettling how much I recognize of myself in you. …. sometimes I think the old trying to talk to the young is like the dead talking to the living.” Blauner is an Edgar Award winning author and his publishers describe his latest novel as “the culmination of two decades of writing and research that took him from Brooklyn to Cairo a half-dozen times.” Hard work is evident: PICTURE IN THE SAND received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and prolific writer Stephen King said, "On rare occasions I read a book that reminds me of why I fell in love with storytelling in the first place. This is such a book."