Leda

A Novel

Leda, a rich, retired, childless physician, is seduced into becoming a terrorist. Despite warnings from her husband, Leda joins her college Muslim friend to work in Palestinian refugee camps where she becomes radicalized by observing conditions under Israeli control. She is attracted to a young, handsome Egyptian physician, Talib, who invites her on a camel trip through the desert to Palmyra. He seduces her physically in a tent during a sand storm and asks her to be a heroine and help him conquer injustice for a downtrodden people. Talib asks her to insinuate herself into the highest levels of government. She pursues her friendship with the Vice-Presidents wife. In Paris she devises a plan and debates her decision to be a martyr. She succeeds in killing the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Israel. This is a trip into the mind of an unconventional woman and an unlikely terrorist.