What drives a young woman raised in a postwar New York City suburb to convert to Islam, abandon her country and Jewish faith, and embrace a life of exile in Pakistan? The Convert tells the story of how Margaret Marcus of Larchmont became Maryam Jameelah of Lahore, one of the most trenchant and celebrated voices of Islams argument with the West. A cache of Maryams letters to her parents in the archives of The New York Public Library sends acclaimed biographer Deborah Baker on her own odyssey into the labyrinthine heart of 20th century Islam. Casting a shadow over these letters is the enigmatic figure of Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi, both Maryams adoptive father and mentor, and the man who laid the intellectual foundations for militant political Islam. As she assembles the pieces of a singularly perplexing life, Baker finds herself captive to the larger questions raised by Maryams journey. How, exactly, did the cold war devolve into the war on terror? Is the argument between Islam and the West a metaphysical one or a historical one? Is Maryams story just another bleak chapter in the so-called clash of civilizations? Or does it signify something else entirely? And then theres this: is the life depicted in Maryams letters home and in her books an honest reflection of the one she lived? Like many compelling and true tales, The Convert is stranger than fiction. About the Author Deborah Baker is the author of In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding, a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, as well as A Blue Hand, an account of Allen Ginsbergs journey to India in the 1960s. She divides her time between Calcutta, Goa, and Brooklyn.