Perhaps because of the cover, I assumed this was a fictional tale. It’s not, though I wish it were.

Zeitoun tells the story of a resident of New Orleans resident, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, and his wife Kathy and children, in the midst and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It begins as a humanitarian tale, with Zeitoun staying behind in the family house to take care of it and elderly neighbors and pets in the hurricane and its aftermatch.

But the story morphs as Zeitoun is detained in the days following Katrina, accused of being an Al Qaeda terrorist based on vague hysteria. The story is told from Abdulrahman’s experience as well as Kathy’s in his imprisonment. It is the stuff of a great action thriller, except that this story happened to one family of American citizens.