Burning Distance

Lizzy’s father dies when the plane he’s flying explodes over the Persian Gulf. She’s ten. Her mother moves the family from the suburbs of Washington to London, where, a few years later, she falls in love with Adil, a young Arab whom she meets at the American School. Their moment of magic comes to an unexplained end when Adil suddenly leaves the country with barely a word to Lizzy. She’s heartbroken, but life goes on — university, job, boyfriend. Adil, though, remains in the picture through the occasional postcard and a stolen weekend in Berlin. Meanwhile, bits and pieces of her father’s life begin to emerge that raise questions about his death. Was he working for the CIA? Was he involved with arms trading? The answers become even murkier when Lizzy discovers that Adil’s father is suspected of supplying arms to both sides in the Iran-Iraq war and that her mother’s new husband has business dealings with a German munitions manufacturer. Set against the international politics and illegal profiteering of the arms trade, Burning Distance is a compelling story of two young people whose love is burdened and conditioned by their fathers’ past actions… and the consequences.