The world has gone crazy. Instead of battles fought on fields with swords and horses, today enemies plant bombs and launch missiles in civilian towns and cities. No one is free from bloodshed, especially now the trend seems to be to blow oneself up to make a point. Are these bombers nuts? Are they totally insane? Or is there a reason behind the madness? What causes them to do what they do? What induces an individual to board a plane knowing they will force the pilot to fly it into the tallest building in New York? What motivates someone to tenaciously strap themselves with explosives and calmly step onto an underground train? In The Innocent’s Story, a novel told both through the eyes of murdered civilians and the perpetrators, Nicky Singer attempts to make sense of the violent irrationality of suicide attacks.

Murdered thirteen-year-old Cassina Dixon is killed by a station bomb and narrates her experience from the dead. She exists as a ‘para-spirit,’ invading the minds of the living and informing us of each individual’s innermost thoughts. The narrator’s pubescent age forces us to identify with our protagonist and to recognise the importance of understanding why she was caught up in the extremist actions of a terrorist. If it could happen to her, it could happen to any of us. Singer expertly engages our sympathies with the narrator from the outset, so that when she ends up inside the mind of the fanatics that killed her, we can regard their attitudes objectively.

As Cassina moves from host to host, we recognize the injustice of her early death and identify with her parents’ tragic grief. This means that when Cassina moves into the brain of Ahim - the suicide bomber that blew her up - we are forced to acknowledge the mind-set of the terrorist. In a controversial twist, Cassina is confused by the fact that Ahim seems to be a ‘normal human being.’ He is portrayed as a compassionate individual with love and affection for the girl kidnapped by Habril, his extremist role model. Furthermore, it is revealed that Ahim does not blow himself up out of a perverse destructive desire to kill, but because of a deep rooted vengeance for the heartless shooting of his wife and child. The vulnerability of Ahim to Habril’s fanatical religious beliefs demonstrates how the suffering caused to one individual can tragically effect us all. By providing insight into Ahim’s family background, Singer shows that political torment and civilian anguish in other parts of the world cannot be dismissed in ignorance. As Habril’s mother laments, ‘if one person suffers anywhere in the world, we all have blood on our hands.’

Thus in The Innocent’s Story, Singer gives voice not only to the murdered civilian, but also to the suicide bomber and the religious extremist. In some respects this reflective approach is problematic because the account of Ahim’s suffering seems to justify his acts of terror and thus exonerate terrorists of blame. Singer effectively implies that the mind of the terrorist is as innocent and vulnerable as those killed by their actions. However, the historical insight into Ahim’s cultural background is not sympathetic to his violent crimes. The overlying tone of the novel encourages a greater awareness of how extremists are indoctrinated and conditioned to kill themselves. Consequently, the exciting twists and turns in the plot evoke a thought-provoking story that discerns how and why there is so much revulsion against western ideals and values.

The Innocent’s Story is a powerful read precisely because of its relevance to recent acts of terrorism. It is an essential novel for the inquisitive teenager.

7/10