Pre-Buzzing Aram Schefrin, Author of MARWAN: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A 911 TERRORIST

I am reading the most fantastic book.  It’s called Marwan: The Autobiography of a 911 Terrorist by Aram Schefrin.

Since it’s so fantastic, I want to create a little pre-buzz for Aram since he’s going out on tour in February (check out his tour page at www.virtualbooktoursforauthors.blogspot.com) because this guy you won’t want to miss as his subject matter deals with something that personally affected everyone in America (and world-wide) on that dreaded day, September 11, 2001.

In case you have been living under a rock, this was the day America mourned as suicidal bombers decided to have a field day in New York City, crashing into the Twin Towers at the New York Trade Center, killing thousands, and then another suicidal bomber headed for the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

How can anyone not remember that day?  War was declared and everyone feared for their lives because we didn’t know what was going to happen next.

But, who were these bombers and why did they do  what they did?

I’ve been talking to Aram, asking him loads of questions to prepare for his tour next month, and this is the most interesting fellow I have talked to about this subject.

His book, Marwan: The Autobiography of a 911 Terrorist, is written from the terrorists’ point of view.  And no NY publishing house would touch it.  In fact, some of them were mortified to even think about publishing it.

Well, they should have given this book a chance because as I am really really really busy with tours and everything, it’s hard to sit back and enjoy a good book.  I knew his tour was coming up, and we had had several conversations about the subject matter, I decided I better start on it.

If you could only imagine how hooked I am on this book.  Of course, I know the ending, but what about the beginning?  Who was this Marwan and why was he involved?

According to Schefrin (who changed the main character’s last name, but kept the first), Marwan was influenced by his cousin Atta, who was totally appalled at what he saw when he arrived in New York in June 2000. 

Shefrin starts off the book by having Marwan saying, “I looked down through a haze of smog from the top of the Empire State.  The ‘greatest city in the world’ was an ugly jumble of buildings, for the most part dreary, more like Dickens’ London, as I imagined it, than the  clean, airy symmetry of the skyline of Dubai…”

He goes on to describe New York…”no matter where we looked that day, we found filth - not just wrappers and cigarette butts but a coating of grime on everything, which only a flood like Noah’s could have cleansed away.”

He asks Atta why did he take him to such a horrible place and Atta responds, “I didn’t bring you here.  Allah did.”

And so it ends the first chapter.

The reason why this book is affecting me the way it does is because I believe it’s human nature to invest some time to find out why someone does what they do, if it is something so horrible and tragic.  Once you do understand it, it helps you prevent the same thing from happening, or at least, try to.

As 911 deeply affected me and as I had personally witnessed the disaster site just six months afterwards, this book will definitely be in my hands over the next day or two.  Sure, there were religious indifferences, but there was so much more that you and I never even considered before and in which Schefrin does an excellent job in portraying.

I’ll be doing a follow-up in a few days.  The writing is excellent and keeps you on the edge of your seat…believe me…I can’t put the book down.  If you’d like to order your copy, click on his book cover.

I will be interviewing Aram at Book Marketing Buzz during his tour in February and you can find out what kind of research he had to do to prepare himself and his views on how he thinks we could have stopped 911 from ever happening.

Tags: book marketing, pre-buzz, 911, New York, terrorist, Aram Schefrin, Marwan