Into the Sun: A Novel

Deni Ellis Bechard

Ten years after the 9/11 incident, a car exploded in a crowded area in Kabul. A Japanese-American reporter was shocked to discover that the passengers were acquaintances—three ex-boyfriends. They formed an unlikely love triangle. Alexandra is a human rights lawyer for imprisoned Afghan women. Justin is a born-again Christian who taught in a local school. Clay is a former soldier who worked as a private contractor. The driver of this car, Idris, is one of Justin’s most promising students, but he is missing. Attracted by the secrets of these strangers, and increasingly convinced that the events leading to the deadly explosions were not random, the reporter followed a trail from Kabul to Louisiana, Maine, Quebec and Dubai. In the process, these people’s tortured narratives are inseparable from the larger story of the American empire’s disaster. In this monumental novel, Deni Ellis Béchard portrays the plain portraits of people who flooded into the war zone, capturing these journalists, mercenaries, and idealists indelibly And aid workers. More importantly, Béchard vividly shows the city of Kabul itself and the people living there;  the hungry, determined, and resourceful locals who are just as willing as their occupiers to reinvent themselves to survive.