With his mantelpiece already crowded with major literary awards, John Updike could contentedly rest on his laurels and continue to write about what he calls his main subject: "American small town, Protestant middle class." Instead, this Nobel Prize contender insists on grappling with issues on the cutting-edge of history. In Terrorist, Updike takes on the hot-button topic of our time. At the center of this large-scale ensemble novel is Ahmad Mulloy Asmawy, a radically alienated Egyptian-Irish-American teenager who falls under the thrall of a New Jersey storefront jihadist. Moving in strange counterpoint to Ahmad is Jack Levy, a 63-year-old guidance counselor who hopes to steer this fledgling terrorist away from absolutist influences. Updike engages us by placing us inside the psyche of someone who, given the opportunity, would destroy us. A major literary event.