Mohja Kahf has just published the novel John Updike should have read before writing Terrorist. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf is now available from Carroll and Graf. Featuring exuberant characters, with narrative nods to Sandra Cisneros, Willa Cather, Alex Haley, Allegra Goodman, and other influences, this novel gives you Muslim Americans as you've never seen them before (the kind you sure won't find in Updike's latest)-three-dimensional, likeable, infuriating, funny, real. It's a novel about friendships, racism, prayer, and life in hopelessly flat Indiana, which anyone would need faith to survive. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf charts the spiritual and social landscape of Muslims in middle America, from five daily prayers to the Indy 500 car race finale.