In October 2002, Sadanand Dhume found himself in a place most foreigners were trying to flee – Bali. Powerful explosions the previous night had ripped through two tourist nightclubs, killing more than 200 people. That evening he visited what remained of the Sari Club and stood amongst piles of ash, and blackened beer bottles, wondering about the future of a country long regarded as immune to such carnage. 

My Friend the Fanatic is a portrait of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, painted through the travels of a pair of unlikely protagonists. Dhume is a foreign correspondent, a Princeton-educated Indian atheist with a fondness for John Updike and an interest in economic development. His companion, Herry Nourdi, is a young Islamist who hero-worships Osama bin Laden.  Does Herry represent the future of Indonesia? By turns disturbing and funny, My Friend the Fanatic fulfills a deep hunger for knowledge about a fascinating land in a time of profound change.