Shadow Web by N M Browne is an interesting fantasy take on the real contemporary issues of war, terrorism and civil liberties. Where I Belong by Gillian Cross also looks at a clash of cultures and how it can lead to violence, in a subtle and absorbing story of supermodels, kidnapping, and a young Somali girl sent to London to get an education and earn money for her family. We also have a review of Gibbons' Street of Tall People. My thanks to the good people at Orion for sending the book. And we can enjoy a thoroughly gripping thriller to boot. We can do all these things when we read Act of Love. And above all, we need to understand how and why this childhood friendship has been stretched to breaking point. We need to understand how Chris came to join the army, despite his reservations, and the sense of comradeship he finds there. We need to understand how Imran's father feels impotent and isolated as he doggedly defends his adopted country. We need to understand why Rafiq ends up throwing a bottle instead of making it to a Russell Group university. We need to understand how Chris's father slips so easily from being happy in a Muslim neighbourhood to getting as far away as possible and talking about just wars. At no point does Gibbons blink, so neither do his readers. We also sit very uncomfortably inside the heads of two extremists, one on each side of the divide - a white supremacist and an English jihadi convert a la shoe bomber Richard Reid. The point of view shifts from chapter to chapter and so we see the conflicted motivations of the two central characters very clearly as they struggle to make sense of events they're involved in but can't control. Gibbons isn't afraid to tackle any aspect of this highly-charged issue and it's clear how carefully researched the book is. I thought An Act of Love was great - utterly gripping, honest, and courageous. And now, terrorism is threatening to end their very lives. Terrorism has wrecked their friendship and sent them in different directions. Imran is angry and rebellious, flirting with extremism. Ten years on, Chris is a veteran of Afghanistan, waiting to receive a medal from the country for which he lost a leg. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan put paid to that. They swore it when they played together in the wilderness behind the estate where they lived.

Whose Side Are You On? by Alan Gibbons