Front Street just reviewed this one and the author would like to give away a copy to club members who, would be interested in reading A Thousand Veils. He will be happy to give one book per book club with a minimum of 10 members (limit of one club per city/town). He only asks in return that, if they like A Thousand Veils, they recommend it to their book club and their local library.
Please email me at editor@frontstreetreviews.com if you would like a copy.
Here is the review from FS:
Reviewed by Cynthia Murphy

D.J. Murphy’s novel, A Thousand Veils, is a fast-paced modern thriller. Murphy tells the story of Iraqi poet and journalist Fatima Shihabi and Wall Street lawyer Charles Sherman. Their story presents the current battle between Islam and the West in microcosm.

The novel starts with a bang as Fatima learns that she is marked for death by Saddam Hussein’s secret police. As she attempts to escape from Iraq and seek asylum in the United States, Fatima faces numerous hurdles. East and West collide when her brother, Omar, contacts Charles Sherman. Fatima’s case intrigues Charles, and it ultimately becomes the biggest “deal” of his law career and his life.

The story moves fast, and the setting changes many times. The action shifts from Baghdad to Saudi Arabia to New York and then on to Paris, the French Alps, and back to Baghdad. The setting is a key element of the novel. Murphy has done a nice job of including a dateline at the beginning of each chapter. The story takes place in the fall of 2002, just before the American invasion of Iraq.
Murphy makes repeatedly points out the cultural misunderstanding that contributes to the conflict between Islam and the West. He handles the subject with a great deal of knowledge and sensitivity. The difficulties of life in the post-9/11 world are presented from both sides of the conflict. As Charles and Fatima fall in love, they see that what unites them as people is much greater than their cultural differences.

Since Fatima is a poet, Murphy has included a number of poems within the novel. The novel begins with a translation of Umar ibn Rabi’a’s “The Unveiled Maid.” The final lines of the poem set the tone for the novel: “Daughter of a better earth, and/ nurtured by a brighter sky;/Would I ne’er had seen thy beauty!/ Hope is fled, but love remains”. The beautiful poetry creates a bittersweet feeling of hope throughout the novel.

While the story presented in A Thousand Veils is action-packed, it is also a hopeful tale. Two very different people join forces and begin to understand one another. Their story points toward a possible peace between Islam and the West.

A Thousand Veils is definitely not a lightweight novel. It is a thriller that will make you think about cultural differences, love, and life in our post-9/11 world.