The Convert, by Deborah Baker

In 1962, 28-year-old Margaret Marcus left her home in New York to start a new life in Pakistan as the adopted daughter of Abul Ala Mawdudi, an Islamic theorist and political leader. She took the name Maryam Jameelah and became an outspoken critic of the West, writing articles for Islamic magazines that encouraged anti-American sentiments. Using the letters she wrote home to her parents, Baker pieces together Jameelah's life in Pakistan. Alternately revered by her Muslim community as a sage and de­nounced as radically unstable, she was as controversial in Lahore as in New York. A misfit at every turn, her life and impact on global jihad are as perplexing as they are fascinating.