“Through a fragmented yet largely chronologically arranged narrative, intertwined with reminiscences of the life of his brother with whom Reed was obviously very close, readers are treated to a story of massive geographical and ideological shifts – from white, middle-class Catholic Pasadena – through tumultuous involvement in dodging the American draft and adherence to secular Marxism while living in Greece and Canada, and visiting Iran, Turkey and Syria – finally to Montreal and conversion to Islam influenced by the Nur movement founded by the Turkish sage Bediüzzaman Said Nursi. If a central thread is to be distinguished in this narrative, it is that of rebellious iconoclasm: the confrontation and smashing of various idols, culminating in surrender to ‘the centrality of mercy that Islam ascribes again and again to God’ (286). … the book succeeds in its stated goal of telling the tale of the survivor.” – Franz Volker Greifenhagen, Equinox Online: Religious Studies and Theology