The Stars of Abbottabad

Told from the perspective of a humble servant named Talib, THE STARS OF ABBOTTABAD offers a unique view into the last twenty-four hours of Osama Bin Laden's life. Talib is eighteen and employed in the service of the world's most wanted man. Around the compound, he is seen as a simpleton, an angelic boy out of place in the world of hardened men. Still, Osama Bin Laden holds a special place in his heart for Talib, precisely because the boy represents the innocent simplicity that Osama can never reclaim. But lately, Talib has started to question his own destiny. His boyish admiration of Osama Bin Laden has faded, and he now sees his master as a sad man, in desperate need of Allah's forgiveness. When Talib sees a premonition of Bin Laden's gruesome death, he keeps it to himself, even though he suspects deep in his heart that the vision will materialize. As the clock ticks down to the final raid on the Abbottabad compound, the protagonist takes us on flashbacks to pivotal moments of the past ten years-the day he met Bin Laden, the day he heard the World Trade Center had been attacked, and the day he was taken to a boy's training camp to learn the ways of jihad. Even though the reader knows how the story is going to end, it remains unclear whether or not Talib will die alongside those with whom he now shares nothing in common.THE STARS OF ABBOTTABAD approaches the story of Osama Bin Laden's death from an unusual (interesting) perspective, and with the tender grace of a fable. Talib has all the makings of a lovable hero-even if he is a meek one. For anyone interested in the fascinating events of Osama Bin Laden's death, THE STARS OF ABBOTTABAD is a must read. Cody Stephen Daniels might have just launched an indie classic. No fictionalized account of this monumental story will have a greater impact, or be more meaningful, to the debate about the nature of terrorism and religion than THE STARS OF ABBOTTABAD. Mark Simms -Ionus Book Reviews