EW's GRADE
B

Details Release Date: Jul 21, 2003; Writer: Janette Turner Hospital; Genre: Fiction

In 1987, Muslim militants hijack a flight from Paris to New York City. Their one act of contrition, before torching the plane, is allowing the children to disembark. More than a decade later, two of the affected kids are trying to figure out what exactly happened on board, and, more pressingly, why someone seems intent on killing them, too. Hospital's a snazzy portraitist and an elegant writer -- her recounting of several victims' final hours is brilliantly brutal -- but her plotting and structure suffer by comparison. The result: unanswered questions, poetically asked.

Originally posted Jul 18, 2003 Published in issue #719 Jul 18, 2003 Order article reprints

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