New Updike Novel

John Updike's long and illustrious career continues with the upcoming publication of "Terrorist", his 22nd novel. The story centers on a New Jersey teenager, the son of an Egyptian father and an Irish American mother who becomes obsessed with the Islamic faith and gradually turns against the American culture that surrounds him.

Updike happened to be in New York on September 11, 2001 and witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Center. "It was about the worst thing I'd ever seen," he later reported. He wrote a short story based on the experience called "Varieties of Religious Experience" which was published in Atlantic Magazine in 2002.