At length she closed her eyes letting the tears run freely down her cheeks, and when she opened them again the butterflies had vanished mysteriously, as though evaporating into thin air. In their place she saw a rain of red petals against the glow of the lights in the square, and in the midst of her racking sobs she smiled, clasping in her two warm, trembling hands Yousef’s cold hand.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gonçalo Coelho was born in Oeiras, Portugal in 1978. He lived in the cities of Lisbon and Oporto in Portugal, Brighton in the UK and São Bento do Sul in Brazil. Currently he resides in Berlin, the German capital. These experiences fill in his literary space characterized by cultural diversity and a willingness to provide readers with different perspectives and facets of the world we live in. He graduated wtih the degree of Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sussex in 2000 but remained forever faithful to his passion for literature. In 2008 he published his first novel entitled Poker. The Miracle of Yousef is his second novel, which has been translated from the original Portuguese to English.
CONTACT THE AUTHOR
Homepage: themiracleofyousef.wordpress.com
E-mail: [email protected]
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[1] Khalid or Khaled is an Arabic name that means ‘eternal,’ or ‘immortal.’
[2] Gorbachev would win the Nobel prize in 1990.
[3] The Lofty Mountain by Sheik Azzam. Azzam Publications, London, s.d., p. 105.
[4] A reference to the true story told by Osama bin Laden himself in The Lofty Mountain, by Abdullah Azzam
[5] Taken from What Do Muslims Believe? by Ziauddin Sardar, Granta, London, 2006.
[6] Taken from The Looming Tower, by Lawrence Wright, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2006.
[7] Of all the months in the Islamic calendar, the month of Ramadan is the holiest. Muslims must abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sexual relations during daylight hours for the entire month.
[8] This corresponds to the real name of the perpetrator of the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, and all of the data set forth in this chapter concerning the explosion and Ramzi Yousef are factual.
[9] Hadith – sayings or traditions of the prophet Mohammed (in this particular case, a saying).
[10] This manual, found in a computer file by the Manchester (UK) Metropolitan Police, is real, as are the facts on the trial in question. The quotation is from page 4 of the manual.
[11] Open letter to King Fahd from Bin Laden (English translation) https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/open-letter-to-king-fahd-from-bin-laden-english-translation-2
[12] This chapter is based on real facts addressed and described both in the report issued by the 9/11 Commission (The 9/11 Commission Report) as well as in the book by Lawrence Wright that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007, The Looming Tower (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2006).
[13] “Transcript: 9/11 Panel Releases Its Final Report,” Washington Post, July 22, 2004.
[14] ibid.
[15] The nation of Islam. The community of Muslims of the whole world
[16] Acronym for the Kosovo Liberation Army
[17] A Turkish liqueur made from grapes with the taste of anise
[18] Bon appétit!
[19] Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was present on October 13, 2008 in Istanbul at the official ceremonies commemorating the completion of the subjmerged tunnel that will complete the connection to the railroad of the Marmaray project.
The Miracle of Yousef: Historical and political thriller Page 36