In 1986, when this autobiography opens, the author is a typical fourteen-year-old boy in Asyut in Upper Egypt. Attracted at first by the image of a radical Islamist group as strong Muslims, his involvement develops until he finds himself deeply committed to its beliefs and implicated in its activities. It serves as an intelligent and critical guide for the reader to the movement s unfamiliar debates and preoccupations, motives and intentions. Fluently written, intellectually gripping, exciting, and often funny, Life Is More Beautiful than Paradise provides a vital key to the understanding of a world that is both a source of fear and a magnet of curiosity for the West.Biographies & Autobiographies.Religion