AustLit

It is 1982. Faride, a young perfume sales rep, is on a train. It is her first trip to Paris. Father Sam Brown, a Catholic priest, enters the compartment and engages a reluctant Faride in conversation. A game of cat and mouse ensues until, finally, their true identities are unmasked. In the scene that follows, Faride is being interrogated for her part in a terrorist plot to destroy the Eiffel Tower. It transpires that she is pregnant. An immaculate conception. She is to be incarcerated and, upon delivery, separated from her child.
It is 2006. Sam, an orthodox Jewish mohel (one who performs ritual circumcisions), is on a train. Into his compartment steps Dimity, a young US soldier. She is on her way to Washington to receive the Congressional Medal of Honour for the courage she has shown during her tour of duty in Iraq. But during her time in Iraq, she has discovered her true identity, and has decided that she will use the occasion to make a political speech. During the conversation that ensues, Sam's true identity is revealed, and Dimity holds him at knife-point. Her ascendancy, however, is short-lived.
In the scene that follows, Faride, dressed in her purest Muslim finery, is on a train. She is on her way to Mecca, for the Haj. Seated opposite her in the compartment is a bearded figure claiming to be Osama Bin Laden. During the conversation that ensues, their true identities are revealed. Faride is there to avenge her daughter's death. Sam is on his way to destroy Islam's most sacred site - the Tomb of Abraham. Only one will emerge from the train alive.
In a play of mounting tension, twists and turns, the relationship between Islam and the West is played out as it has never been played out before. (Publisher's blurb)