In his extraordinary and highly charged new novel, John Updike tackles one of America's most burning issues the threat of Islamist terror from within. Set in contemporary New Jersey, Terrorist traces the journey of one young man, from radicalism to fundamentalism to terrorism, against the backdrop of a fraying urban landscape and an increasingly fragmented community. In beautiful prose, Updike dramatizes the logic of the fundamentalist terrorist but also suggests ways in which we can counter it, in our words and our actions . . .