I began reading books by Gruber a few years ago. The first was The Book of Air and Shadows, the next was The Forgery of Venus. Both were very good and so I was excited to read this new book The Good Son. Unlike his first two books which had artistic and historical references,The Good Son is solidly in the here and now, albeit in Pakistan.

Sonia Laghari and eight fellow psychologists are traveling to a symposium on peace, when the bus they are taking is attacked by Islamic terrorists and they are all captured. Sonia who is a Jungian psychologist who converted to Islam and has written several controversial books, soon becomes the leader of the kidnapped group and must use her knowledge of the language and religion and even some Jungian dream analysis in an effort to keep herself and her group alive. Meanwhile Sonia’s son Theo, who serves with the US military doing black ops, hears of his mother’s plight, and decides that he needs to rescue her. The story weaves back and forth between these two characters, with flash backs so that we begin to see the frayed family ties, the father who has abandoned his culture and family of origin for that of the West and the cost of Sonia’s fame and success to their family. We also learn that Theo, in an attempt to understand his roots, became a fighter for the mujaheddin.

The tension in this book keeps escalating as Sonia tries to negotiate with her captors and Theo tries to figure out how to rescue his mother. The psychological aspects are extremely interesting, as Sonia uses her knowledge of religion and culture against her captors but also among those in her own group as they try and hold it all together in the face of imminent execution.

Theo wrestles with the legacy of his family while being pulled into rescuing his mother and tries to reconcile his need to help her with his own sense of being abandoned by her as she pursued her career. Even as we are being pushed to a crescendo and military action begins for the rescue attempt, I was not prepared for the revelations that ensued. Gruber, deftly switches the train tracks and suddenly all is not as it seems.

After I was finished I kept wondering about Sonia and Theo. What is the nature of the relationship between a mother and son? What motivates a person to commit acts of terror? What is a good son? I’m still not sure about the answers to those questions, but what I do know is that this was one of the best books I read all last year!

Brenda’s Recommendation:*****(5 Stars out of 5)

Recommend This Book To: Ken, Keith, Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy? Yes!

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