Review by New York Times Review
With a feature film already in the works, "The Fox Hunt" is likely to be one of the very few general-interest stories set in and about Yemen. And this is why it is particularly disappointing that the book misses so many opportunities to paint a true picture of this remarkable country and its people. Instead, the driving narrative is a story about the heroism of white Americans. In the first chapter, A1 Samawi, who was trapped in his apartment when war exploded just outside his door, deftly catches newcomers up on the conflict, but then suddenly pivots to a Facebook exchange. The effect is a little jarring, and it's not the only time the reader will feel disoriented. Throughout the first several chapters, we wade through a convoluted account of defining moments in Al Samawi's childhood but learn precious little about Yemeni life and society. The story really begins when A1 Samawi reads the Bible for the first time at the urging of an English-language teacher. We see how he begins, on his own, to be a critical thinker, eventually attending an interfaith conference and encountering Jewish Israelis and Americans. Finally, we reach the action-packed center of his story, his entrapment and eventual rescue from Aden, a port city in the south, where he's fled after receiving death threats, presumably for his engagement with Jews and Americans. At this point, we are suddenly in a completely different book, a gripping account of terror and escape that plays out over a few weeks. The book asks us to tacitly accept unexplored descriptions of anti-American and anti-Semitic sloganeering without understanding when and how the country's education system collapsed as it did, and to blindly applaud interfaith encounters as a viable path to peace. And we end up learning more about A1 Samawi's work from the glowing letters his American friends write about him than from the pages he's written himself. Nonetheless, he comes across as a sensitive, curious, openhearted man - and meeting such a person from a country as far off the American public's radar as Yemen is valuable in itself.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 31, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Growing up in Yemen, the son of a prominent family, the author is schooled to hate Jews and the West. But when a respected British teacher gives him a Bible, he is stunned by its many parallels with the Qur'an. Filled with questions, he turns to social media, where he is able to connect for the first time with Jews to find answers and become further enlightened. Inspired, he takes employment with humanitarian NGOs and begins attending international conferences, efforts that lead to death threats. Much worse is to come, however, when Yemen erupts into civil war, and Al Samawi finds himself a potential target of enemy forces. To spare his northern family from peril by association, he travels to southern Yemen, where he finds his life in even graver danger. Helpless, he once again turns to social media and discovers four young Americans who selflessly adopt his cause and go to incredible lengths to help him escape Yemen. The resulting story is nail-bitingly suspenseful, as effort after effort fails, and the fighting intensifies. Team Mohammed never gives up hope, however, and Al Samawi's ultimate escape is inspiring, as is his determination to continue to work for international peace and understanding. Illuminating and essential reading.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Part memoir, part real-life thriller, Al -Samawi's breathtaking account begins in Sana'a, Yemen, where the author was born and raised and led a typical life as a Zaidi Shia Muslim. In college, he begins to meet people from other cultures and to question his childhood learnings. This new awareness creates a desire to work in interfaith matters fostering a commonality among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. These efforts, however, result in death threats, and when the civil war in Yemen intensifies, Al Samawi reaches out to friends to help him leave his home country. Over the course of two weeks, through the use of social media, they create a network of U.S. Senators, Indian officials, and others to get the author aboard a boat to Djibouti in East Africa. Throughout, readers learn about Yemeni history, doctrinal differences between Shia and Sunni Muslims, geopolitics of the Middle East, and Al Samawi's family. -VERDICT This debut memoir is engaging and tragic yet full of hope as a worldwide effort is undertaken to save Al Samawi's life. A triumphant work that will appeal to a broad general readership.-Jacqueline Parascandola, Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A refugee's memoir about hope, fear, luck, and the devotion of people to causes larger than themselves.Al Samawi grew up in a traditional, highly devoted Muslim family in Sana'a, Yemen. Because of a childhood illness, he was partially paralyzed on one side of his body. He focused all his attention on his studies and on being a dutiful son, and he grew up not questioning what he had been taught about the dangers and evils of Jews and Westerners. The first half of this compelling memoir tells of the author's life growing up in a tumultuous political and social environment. In the second half of the book, which is what makes it so powerful, Al Samawi chronicles how he became a peace activist, hiding his desire to know and understand Jews, Christians, and others committed to peace and reconciliation. At the epicenter of this story is his escape from the civil war in Yemen in 2015. He was trapped in his apartment and relied on a network of fellow peace activists, many of them Jews and Westerners spread across the globe, who helped him make his way through a nightmare of violence, bureaucratic indifference, and international chaos, not to mention numerous death threats. Had he been caught, he likely would have been identified as an active campaigner for human rights with deep and growing connections to peace movements and suspect alliances, all of which would have surely led to his death. The author is exceptionally earnestperhaps too much so for some readerswith a tendency to reproduce lengthy conversations from years ago. Nonetheless, he is an effective, engaging narrator with an important story to tell.Gracious and generous, this personal account of a remarkable life is a reminder of how peace comes in small increments as the result of the work of committed individuals. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
