Osama the Gun, by Norman Spinrad (hardcover)

Description

THE NOVEL DEEMED TOO DANGEROUS TO BE PUBLISHED IN AMERICA—-IS FINALLY PUBLISHED IN AMERICA!

Osama the Gun, set in a not-so-far future when the "Sons of Osama" have established a powerful Islamic Caliphate with Pakistani nuclear weapons and Arabian oil money, is the story of one of those "sons" of the martyr, a naive and sincere young man who becomes a Caliphate secret agent to escape its closed confines and see the world -- and finds himself becoming the reluctant hero of the title.

Osama the Gun becomes a terrorist leader on a small scale by happenstance, a mercenary used by Islamic forces fighting an American proxy invasion in the oil lands of Nigeria, an iconic figure in the manner of "El Che." All the while he charms the reader as a likable, sincere, idealistic, and sympathetic human doing very unsympathetic things to the interests of the United States of America.

“I wanted the reader to hate the sin, but love the sinner, because I felt it had to be done, and since no one else seemed to be willing to do it, I had to try to do it myself, come what may. Because Islam was being confused with its radical Middle Eastern jihadhis, and Arabs in general with terrorists, and it seemed to me that the alien jihadhist consciousness had to be experienced from within and empathetically understood. Which was why OSAMA THE GUN had to be written, and why, as one foaming at the mouth rejection letter predicted, no American publisher would touch this book.” — Norman Spinrad

Norman Spinrad later wrote on Facebook:

"Just got my first copy of Wildside’s “library quality” hardcover limited first editon of OSAMA THE GUN. Aside from what’s between the boards I’m very pleased with the book as an artifact. A good cover and all which I expected but I was happily surprised by the quality of the boards, the sewn binding, and so forth, a production level you don’t see enough of these days. In fact, as a critic for 4 decades, I don’t think I ever praised the actual production of a book... Okay, this is my novel, and I’m not reviewing it as literature, but I think Wildside Press and John Betancourt deserves some public praise for the craftsmanship of the volume. Even if it is from the author. Maybe especially from the author. Publishers get far more complaints from writers about the physical quality of their books, more of it than not, deserved."

Nice!

The hardcover edition of Osama the Gun is limited to 600 copies.
Written by Normal Spinrad.
Cover design by Sam Cooper.
ISBN: 978-1-4794-0827-6