Book Review: The Martyr's Brother

By Annell Gerson

For many of us, home includes winding neighborhood roads lined with towering pines, plush fescue lawns sprinkled with azaleas and dogwoods and roads dense with SUVs loaded with soccer gear, children and the family dog. Compared to home around the globe, suburban life in Atlanta is mostly quiet, predictable and safe.

But what if it wasnt?

What if the unimaginable happened in our city? What if a stadium, school or shopping center became the target for a terrorist attack? Who would do this, and more importantly, why?

Rona Simmons newest book, The Martyrs Brother, takes readers to the edge of such an event and presents a fictional who and why. Riveting and perfect for robust book club conversation, The Martyrs Brother unfolds from four points of view. Since her husbands death five years ago in a suicide bomber attack in the Middle East, Alicia has worked doubly hard to be a good mom to her son. Lupe and her twin sister pay coyotes to help them enter the United States, where they hope to reunite with their father and work to send money home. Cyril works in the Atlanta field office of the FBI, and after messing up a previous assignment, he is determined to salvage his career by creating meaningful software that will significantly help with data sorting. Shafras brother is the suicide bomber responsible for the death of Alicias husband; five years after the event, he leaves home to head to Atlanta.

Simmons carefully chisels the many faces of each character. They are scared, brave, angry, hopeful, lonely, anxious, but most importantly, they are motivated motivated by what cannot be seen, but rather by what stirs quietly in the silence of their thoughts. As good books often do, The Martyrs Brother will linger in your thoughts, as you think about home.

Rona Simmons previous novels are The Quiet Room and Postcards from Wonderland. Visit RonaSimmons.com for additional information.