THE BRUSSELS CONNECTION

Five lives are profoundly transformed by a terrorist attack on a Brussels airport in Hamilton’s novel.

Ibrahim’s family departs Morocco for Brussels in 1998 in search of a better life, but full integration into Belgian life proves elusive. His family settles into Mollenbeek, a hardscrabble neighborhood. Ibrahim is indifferent to his Muslim heritage and, like many teens, is infatuated with girls, money, and football; he also engages in casual drug use. After a botched armed robbery attempt, Ibrahim is sentenced to 10 years in prison, and during the first year he undergoes a radical transformation into a devout Muslim under the tutelage of Mohamed, an Algerian fellow prisoner. Eventually, he enthusiastically joins the Islamic State group and becomes their foot soldier in Syria and Iraq, finally returning to Europe. Hamilton powerfully captures his protagonist’s anger: “Dark revenge was in Ibrahim’s heart. Revenge against the West that bombed and gassed his brothers and Arab children, while their own children slept safely in ignorance of the daily terror inflicted against the Caliphate.” After participating in successful attacks on Paris, he plans a major assault on an airport, while staying a step ahead of intelligence services. The author explores the ramifications of terrorism by chronicling the overlapping lives of five people whose lives are waylaid by it: Nena, a DJ from Antwerp; Philippe, a philandering restauranteur; Mark, an elite British soldier; Roxy, a diving instructor engaged to a Turkish oligarch; and Tom and Meena, both IT professionals and colleagues—the former meek and incompetent, the latter ruthlessly ambitious. However, the resulting scope of the narrative is simply too grand, and the proliferation of subplots becomes a distraction; readers may wish that that author had devoted more time to more deeply developing a pared-down cast of characters. Moreover, this is an overly familiar tale at its core, and one that’s been told so many times that it feels like the rehearsal of a formula. For all its undeniable intelligence, this novel may fail to sustain readers’ attention to the end.

An earnest but formulaic story of religious radicalization and its effects.