The Mirage - by Matt Ruff (Paperback)

About the Book

From the beloved cult author of "Bad Monkeys" comes an unprecedented, mind-bending psychological thriller, in which an alternate history of 9/11 uncovers startling and harrowing truths about America and the Middle East.

From the Back Cover

11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijackfour jetliners. They fly two into theTigris & Euphrates World Trade Towersin Baghdad, and a third into the ArabDefense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourthplane, believed to be bound for Mecca, isbrought down by its passengers. The UnitedArab States declares a War on Terror. Arabianand Persian troops invade the EasternSeaboard and establish a Green Zone inWashington, D.C. . . .

Summer, 2009: Arab Homeland Securityagent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogatesa captured suicide bomber. The prisonerclaims that the world they are living in isa mirage--in the real world, America is asuperpower, and the Arab states are just acollection of "backward third-world countries."Other captured terrorists have beentelling the same story.

The gangster Saddam Hussein is conductinghis own investigation. And the headof the Senate Intelligence Committee--awar hero named Osama bin Laden--willstop at nothing to hide the truth. As Mustafaand his colleagues venture deeper into theunsettling world of terrorism, politics, andespionage, they are confronted with questionswithout any rational answers, andthe terrifying possibility that their world isnot what it seems.

Review Quotes

"This book quite successfully challenges the ideas of Christian moral supremacy and the unchallenged political agenda of superpowers. It is a deeply satisfying novel which excites hopes of a long and productive career for this young writer." - Examiner.com
"Furious entertainment. . . . It echoes Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union or Steven Barnes's Lion's Blood, but more comparisons will be made to Philip K. Dick's World War II reimagining The Man in the High Castle." - The Onion's AV Club
"If you amalgamated the methodical, punctilious, world-building skills of Ian McDonald with the reality-distortion powers of Philip K. Dick and then folded in the satirical, take-no-prisoners savagery of Norman Spinrad, you might be able to produce a book approximating The Mirage." - Barnes and Nobles Review
"That The Mirage shares DNA with airport-kiosk genre exercises is nothing to be ashamed of. A good thriller is hard to pull off. The ingredients are clear enough: propulsive action, sympathetic characterization, and enough detail to ground the story without slowing things down." - The Philadelphia City Paper
"An audacious new novel. . . . . The Mirage is a topsy-turvy tour de force, another winner from a truly inventive and unpredictable storyteller." - The San Francisco Chronicle
"Ruff has constructed a funhouse-mirror mash-up where H.G. Wells and Graham Greene collide with The Arabian Nights and The Matrix. . . . It's no easy task to recreate the universe in its own, if slightly distorted, image, yet Ruff has succeeded handily, dizzying and dazzling the reader with a fantastic-and fantastical-story." - BookPage
"A funhouse-mirror mash-up where H.G. Wells and Graham Greene collide with The Arabian Nights and The Matrix. . . . Ruff dizzies and dazzles the reader with a fantastic-and fantastical-story." - BookPage
"Sci-fi/fantasy/post-cyberpunk cult author Matt Ruff imagines an alternate world in which Arabia becomes the earth's dominant superpower and America is a dictator-led, fundamentalist backwater. More than half the fun here comes from discovering all of the intricately clever consequences Ruff derives from that simple premise." - Details
"The alt-historical framework is in many ways the best and most entertaining part of the book, and you want it to expand beyond the mere 400 pages of The Mirage." - Seattle Weekly
"An unnerving but intriguing premise forms the backbone of Matt Ruff's latest novel, The Mirage, one of the most daring 9/11-inspired novels to emerge after that horrific day - The Seattle Times
"Ruff embraces his twisty concept with an attention to detail that suggests many months, more likely years, of fervent research. . . . Ruff has never been afraid of temporary immersion in disparate genres, bouncing between sci-fi, literary parody, and even romance from novel to novel and, at times, chapter to chapter. . . . He is a world-class world builder who, perhaps better than any other writer, can create exotic, mysterious worlds and communicate their unique rules and consistent logics both clearly and concisely. . . . The Mirage isn't just an object lesson in geopolitics; it's a secret history, a magic mirror allowing glimpses into the effects of religious fundamentalism of all types on the United States over the last 50 years. . . . Ruff writes with the explosive prose of a very good thriller." - The Stranger
"Ruff embraces his twisty concept with an attention to detail that suggests many months, more likely years, of fervent research. . . . He is a world-class world builder who, perhaps better than any other writer, can create exotic, mysterious worlds and communicate their unique rules and consistent logics." - The Stranger
"Matt Ruff's new thriller, The Mirage, is an intriguing addition to the genre . .. . Ruff spices up his tale with a wealth of arresting details, like the three-cornered hats worn by American militants in homage to the minutemen of the Revolutionary War. Other adroit touches of alternate reality include the lynching of four Arab contractors who lose their way in the militant stronghold of Langley, Va. And he serves up some pointed commentary on America's proclivity for religious zealotry. . . . Ruff keeps you reading, [out of] eagerness to see what twist he'll think of next." - The New York Times Book Review
"The Mirage is an intriguing addition to the genre . .. . Ruff spices up his tale with a wealth of arresting details. . . . Ruff keeps you reading, [out of] eagerness to see what twist he'll think of next." - The New York Times Book Review
"Genre buster Ruff takes the reader through the looking glass into a world where a union of benevolent Muslims states (the U.A.S.) guards against Christian fundamentalist terrorists trying to spread fear and unrest. . . . The Mirage is both entertaining and provocative, exactly what the best popular fiction should be." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A unique and compelling read." - The Associated Press
"Like Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, the premise behind Ruff's alternate-history novel is chilling." - The New York Post
"An unnerving but intriguing premise forms the backbone of Matt Ruff's latest novel, The Mirage, one of the most daring 9/11-inspired novels to emerge after that horrific day. . . . It's probably never going to be a great time to plumb the events of 9/11 for fodder to incorporate into a piece of leisure reading, but the straightforwardness of Ruff's approach gives the proceedings a gravitas that serves as a nod of respect for what the United States, the Iraqis, and the Afghanis farther afield have gone through." - The Seattle Times