Summer snow

Set in the present day, against the backdrop of the war on terror, this novel follows an American soldier who becomes involved with a Sufi mystic. Through her, he begins to see a path that rejects the habits of thinking he has absorbed in the military. The story moves between his unit's fight with al-Qaeda and the couple's growing bond, while the rising bloodshed puts their future together at risk, along with the lives of many thousands of people in her homeland.

To halt the violence, she teaches him an ancient, transcendental practice meant to calm the shared consciousness of a population and head off terrorism at its source. The question that drives the book is whether they can put this into action before time runs out.

The novel blends romance, combat and mystical teaching. Its central argument is that expanded awareness can accomplish more than force, and that women may be better placed than men to guide the world toward that awareness.