Jihadi (46 page)
Authors: Yusuf Toropov
Qeelad-khulil-Jannah. Qala ya layta Qawmee ya’-la-moun. Bima gafara lee Rabee wa ja-’alanee minal-mukrameen.
It was said, ‘Enter Paradise.’ He said, ‘I wish my people could know of how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honoured.’
36:26–27
Grateful acknowledgement goes out to Karen Sullivan, Bob Diforio, West Camel, Mark Swan, MacGuru, Richard Gibney and Safie Maken Finlay, none of whom ever gave up.
Yusuf Toropov is an American Muslim writer. He’s the author or co-author of a number of nonfiction books, including
Shakespeare for Beginners
. His full-length play
An Undivided Heart
was selected for a workshop production at the National Playwrights Conference, and his one-act play
The Job Search
was produced off-Broadway.
Jihadi: A Love Story,
which reached the quarter-finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, is his first novel. He is currently living in Ireland.
You can visit him at:
http://yusuftoropov.blogspot.com
Or follow him on Twitter: @LiteraryStriver
Orenda Books
16 Carson Road
West Dulwich
London SE21 8HU
www.orendabooks.co.uk
To Safie
First published in the United Kingdom by Orenda Books 2016
This ebook edition published by Orenda Books 2015
Copyright © Brandon Toropov 2015
Brandon Toropov has asserted his moral right to be indentified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-910633-32-8
Typeset in Garamond by MacGuru Ltd
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.