American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar has been selected as the Summer Reading Book for 2013.

American Dervish will be provided to all incoming freshmen at Appalachian, and Ayad Akhtar will speak to members of the campus community and others during Convocation in the Holmes Center on campus, September 10. Akhtar also will participate in other discussions on campus and in the community, on September 11.

University News Release

Library Catalog Record for American Dervish

"Novella Carpenter loves cities-the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways: a homegrown vegetable plot as well as museums, bars, concerts, and a twenty-four-hour convenience mart mere minutes away. Especially when she moved to a ramshackle house in inner city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage-strewn abandoned lot next door. She closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes, a beehive, and a chicken coop."

 From Penguin.com