By Ashraf Elghandour

As you begin Ashraf Elghandour’s Tip of the Needle, you are introduced to two compelling widowers and fathers in the City of Hebron in Palestine’s Israeli-occupied West Bank: Rabbi Moshe Ackerman, a child of the concentration camps of Auschwitz who leads a congregation of Orthodox Jews, and his good friend, Imam Mohdi el-Shafique, who leads a nearby Islamic congregation. The heroes of TOTN are their sons, Addis Ackerman and Nader el-Shafique, brilliant high school students who attend the International School for the Gifted. After a life-altering event that changed the trajectory of their futures, both sons emigrate west to pursue their studies, setting the pieces of this compelling chess match in place.

The other two principal characters of TOTN are Sacha Zimmerman, Nader’s beautiful and gifted MIT classmate, and her father, American billionaire tech mogul, Zach Zimmerman. As Mr. Zimmerman pushes dangerous and profitable artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to a naïve international community, ignoring potential unintended consequences, he pursues a momentous campaign for the Presidency of the United States. Meanwhile, Dr. el Shafique, who teaches introductory physics and a class investigating Evidence of Science in Scripture at MIT, is appointed Science Advisor to the General Council of the United Nations. Dr. Ackerman, a professor of astrophysics, leads a research laboratory in Geneva, whose investigations include particle acceleration and the phenomena of black holes. Dr. Zimmerman has published a book based upon her doctoral dissertation entitled Tip of the Needle, which attempts to use electrochemical physiological markers to quantify forces of good and evil and the precarious balance between them.

While interpersonal relationships between the protagonists are enthralling, the danger and intrigue emanating from manipulation by the powerful antagonists drives the voracious page turning. The author deftly and creatively intersperses the story with scriptural quotes, largely conveyed in text messages to Nader from his father, the Imam, and revealed to be both omniscient and prophetic. As I neared the book’s unpredictable and thought-provoking conclusion, I was drawn to it overwhelmingly, as if by the irresistible forces of gravity. So much about the book provokes reflection on where, when, and how we live in the twenty-first century. How far are we from a tipping point?