Streams of Babel

Plum-Ucci, Carol. 2008. Streams of Babel. Harcourt. 424 pages.

I sat very still, waiting for the police and ambulance to arrive.

I liked this one. I really liked it. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. But I liked it all the same. Told through multiple narrators, the book follows a terrorist attack on "Colony One". The water lines for a neighborhood have been poisoned with "Red Vinegar." And the race is on to find just what this Red Vinegar agent is, and to discover a cure before (even more) people die from drinking tap water. At the heart of this story are teenagers. The year is 2002. The threat of terrorism--the doomsday fear--is large. But for this New Jersey community, it is all too real. Unfortunately. With two fatalities already, this is no laughing matter. Can the case be solved? And quickly?! Help may come from two unlikely sources: a boy named Shahzad Hamdani, a v-spy who for some of the book at least lives on the other side of the world (Pakistan); and an American hacker-boy, Tyler Ping, who suspects his own mother of wrongdoing (though not necessarily in this terror cell). They along with the American teenagers of Owen and Scott Eberman, Rain Steckerman, and Cora Holman, are the narrators of the novel. It is through their perspectives that we grasp the terrifying (and isolating) situation.

It's a complex novel, but a good one.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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