No True Believers

December 23, 2019
Lumbard’s debut, a thriller about an American Muslim teen living in Arlington, Va., lays bare the all-too-often conflicting ideas of patriotism and tolerance. High school senior Salma Bakkioui is a Muslim girl with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome; her father is a redheaded caucasian North African Berber; and her mother is a blond former WASP, now Muslim convert, from Nashville. Salma is coming to terms with the loss of her best friend, who recently moved to Dubai, when her Washington, D.C., community is rocked by a terrorist bombing ascribed to Islamic extremists. After her school receives a bomb threat, Salma is questioned by the police and begins receiving bigoted messages on her locker. She isn’t the type to hide, though, and she begins to investigate the bad luck that suddenly seems to befall Muslims in her community, uncovering revelations along the way. In addition to keeping readers guessing what will happen next, Lumbard asks questions about government overreach, cybersecurity, and what’s at stake when the reputation of an entire group is threatened. Though characters lack nuance and the pacing is leisurely until the final act, Lumbard’s novel succeeds in illuminating fundamental similarities across religions and portraying a harrowing situation that feels contemporary and plausible. Ages 14–up.