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by Mohammed Al Samawi (Author)
"A gripping account of terror and escape." -- New York Times Book Review
The Fox Hunt tells one young man's unforgettable story of his harrowing escape from Yemen's brutal civil war with the help of a daring plan engineered on social media by a small group of interfaith activists in the West.
WINNER: 2019 NAUTILUS BOOK AWARDS - A 2019 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS FINALIST
Born in the Old City of Sana'a, Yemen, to a pair of middle-class doctors, Mohammed Al Samawi was a devout Muslim raised to think of Christians and Jews as his enemy. But when Mohammed was twenty-three, he secretly received a copy of the Bible, and what he read cast doubt on everything he'd previously believed. After connecting with Jews and Christians on social media, and at various international interfaith conferences, Mohammed became an activist, making it his mission to promote dialogue and cooperation in Yemen.
Then came the death threats: first on Facebook, then through terrifying anonymous phone calls. To protect himself and his family, Mohammed fled to the southern port city of Aden. He had no way of knowing that Aden was about to become the heart of a north-south civil war, and the battleground for a well-funded proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. As gunfire and grenades exploded throughout the city, Mohammed hid in the bathroom of his apartment and desperately appealed to his contacts on Facebook.
Miraculously, a handful of people he barely knew responded. Over thirteen days, four ordinary young people with zero experience in diplomacy or military exfiltration worked across six technology platforms and ten time zones to save this innocent young man trapped between deadly forces-- rebel fighters from the north and Al Qaeda operatives from the south.
The story of an improbable escape as riveting as the best page-turning thrillers, The Fox Hunt reminds us that goodness and decency can triumph in the darkest circumstances.
A memoir that reads like a thriller, The Fox Hunt includes:
- A Crisis of Faith: Raised to believe Jews and Christians were the enemy, a devout Muslim's world is turned upside down when a secret reading of the Bible challenges his deepest convictions.
- Trapped by War: Fleeing death threats, Mohammed Al Samawi escapes to the city of Aden, only to find himself caught between Houthi rebels from the north and Al Qaeda operatives from the south.
- A Digital Rescue Mission: Through a desperate plea on Facebook, a handful of young people across the globe--strangers with no military experience--band together online to engineer an impossible extraction.
- Geopolitical Thriller: Set against the backdrop of Yemen's devastating proxy war, this gripping memoir is all the more harrowing because every word is true.
