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American Mother
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About This Book
In late 2021 Diane Foley sat at a table across from Alexanda Kotey. A member of the ISIS group known as "The Beatles," Kotey had pleaded guilty to the kidnapping, torture, and murder of her son, James Foley, seven years before. She asked the legendary writer Colum McCann to be there. American Mother moves back and forth in time as Foley recalls her son's determination to shed light on the plight of those caught up in the agonies of war; his harrowing months of captivity; and the days following his death. Channeling Foley's singular voice, McCann brings to life her shock, sadness, resolve, and astonishing hope in the face of an unthinkably altered life. American Mother is a work of profound moral clarity and courage, a book that takes readers inside one woman's extraordinary journey to find connection in a world torn asunder, and to fight for others as a way to keep James Foley's memory alive.
Reviews
"His account of her face-off with Kotey doesn't stint on high drama; in places it reads like an excitable would-be screenplay."
"The voice of Diane Foley is plausible, only rarely slipping into a style that sounds more distinctively like McCann's ..."
"The picture Diane paints of the incompetence and fearful mishandling of the American hostages is horrifying ..."
"There is no easy answer to the many public conundrums that animate this book, nor to Foley's private quest to gain insights."
"The book is, at times, terribly difficult to read, but it needs to be."
"An indelible portrait of a mother's courage ..."
"I found her faith bracing, for the very reason that it's unusual, and it's also the scaffolding on which she balances ideas that should matter to us all: of compassion, of forgiveness, of understanding ..."
"Her heartbreak and fury are evident on every page as she describes her family's battle to save the son they cannot reach while forced to reckon with a murder that can never be understood, let alone explained."
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