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I read the Taqwacores because of an interview with Michael Muhammad Knight that a friend of mine posted. The novel is a window into a type of Muslim I never even knew existed (although I should have known). The story takes place in a house in Buffalo, New York, and involves a slew of characters, all Muslim, from a burqa wearing Rabeya to a righteous Umar and many others. The house is littered with beer bottles that have to be kicked aside when characters line up to face Qibla (marked with a hole in the wall made by a baseball bat) at prayer time. The narrator is Yusef, who describes life in the house which he absorbs from a bit of distance -- he's still figuring out how his position toward Islam might fit in (or not) with the chaos that is his temporary home. The novel culminates with a Muslim Punk Rock concert that a housemate engineers. The book is filled with Muslim references and language which make the story oddly familiar even as its subject matter is not. The book is fascinating as a window into an entirely different lifestyle. As a novel, it doesn't succeed--there are problems all around, including narrative drive, arc of the story, plot and character development, point of view, and a rather unfulfilling ending. Yet, the characters stay with me and I'm even right now wondering what they are up to!