The True American Anand Giridhardas

The true american tells the story of raisuddin bhuiyan, a bangladesh air force officer who dreams of immigrating to america and working in the it section. But days after 9/11, an avowed ‘american terrorist' named mark stroman, seeking revenge, walks into the dallas minimart where bhuiyan has found temporary work and shoots him, maiming and nearly killing him. Ten years after the shooting, an islamic pilgrimage seeds in bhuiyan a strange idea: if he is ever to be whole, he must re-enter stroman's life. He longs to confront stroman and speak to him face-to-face about the attack that changed their lives. Bhuiyan publicly forgives stroman, in the name of his religion and its notion of mercy. Then he wages a legal and public-relations campaign, against the state of texas and governor rick perry, to have his attacker spared from the death penalty