The Convert: A Tale of exile and extremism

Deborah Baker is a serious biographer who specialises in fairly crazy writers. Her study of the poet Laura Riding, who survived a suicide attempt in 1929, during her 14-year ménage-à-trois with Robert Graves and his wife, was a Pulitzer finalist. Next came A Blue Hand, her portrait of the Beats in India, few of whom were in robust mental health. Yet even these have nothing on Maryam Jameelah, a New York Jewish convert to Islam.

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