A disorienting portrayal of 9/11 mastermind Mohamed Atta.

On September 11, 2001, Mohamed Atta piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Two years before the explosion, Atta defended a master’s thesis that critiqued the introduction of Western-style skyscrapers in the Middle East.

Using this as a departure point, Jarett Kobek’s novel ATTA offers a psychedelic biography that circles around one question: What if the ideological roots of 9/11 were as much a matter of architectural criticism as religious terrorism? Following the development of a socially awkward boy into one of history’s great villains, Kobek dissects our assumptions about the root causes of stochastic violence. Are all of us, perpetrators and victims alike, seeking an explanation that is not there?

Presented in a new edition with an introduction by Alan Moore, ATTAreads less like a novel of its moment and more like an autopsy performed on our century of fear.