Mohrlang is the new master of adventure in exotic locales...."

Publish America, the nations largest traditional publishing company, is proud to announce the release of area author Jerry Mohrlangs new novel, Mujahidin.

(PRWEB) April 21, 2004 -- Mujahidin is an historical adventure epic that traces the life of an American Jew, Aaron Harel, who spends his formative years living throughout the Middle East and Afghanistan where he meets Khalis, a charismatic Pathan tribal leader and mujahidin. Aaron eagerly absorbs the teachings of Khalis and incorporates the Pathan concepts of justice, honor, revenge, and the warrior ethic into his young, impressionable life. As an adult, Aaron becomes the consummate soldier and Mossad operative. But circumstances and personal tragedy intervene and force Aaron to return to the wild land of his youth in the midst of a violent civil war. To survive, Aaron is forced to recall the dusty lessons of his youth and confront the shadows from his distant past.

Mr. Mohrlang is also the author of the highly acclaimed novel, Sarawak. Excerpts of the authors books may be read on his website at www.coloradowriter.homestead.com. His books may be purchased at most area bookstores (Mujahidin ISBN # 1-4137-0527-8, Sarawak ISBN # 1-59129-336-7), directly from the publisher at www.publishamerica.com/books/3820 or from any major online bookseller.

The author is available for presentations, booksignings and interviews and may be contacted at 970-285-1167 or at mohrlang@earthlink.net.

Reviews

5 of 5 Stars...
Jerry Mohrlang excels at historic fiction. He proved that with his first book, Sarawak, a historical novel in the classic sense. Sarawak is one of my all-time favorite books, but he has surpassed himself with Mujahidin.

From the graphic ground wars and brusque military dialog, to his always memorable characters and eloquent descriptive narrative, Mujahidin is excellent in every way a novel should be.

Several major characters are introduced in Part One. In 1973 Israel, the Yom Kippur War is brewing. A massive Syrian army is gathering in preparation to overrun a small Israeli force. One of the lesser known combatants is Major Aaron Harel, an American veteran of Viet Nam as yet unproven on Israeli soil. The battle is horrific, realistically described, with Harel wounded and near death when his tank is destroyed by artillery fire.

Part Two quite effectively tells us more about what made Aaron Harel into the man who fought beside the Israelis in the Yom Kippur war. As a boy, hes raised by an Israeli mother and an inattentive American step-father serving as a diplomat in the Middle East. Young Aarons friendships are with Afghan royalty and with a powerful mujahidin who teaches him the Afghan path to manhood. Mujahidin means warrior in the Afghan language. The boy, Aaron, learns what it means to be a Moslem warrior of the true faith, and that a man or warrior is nothing without honor. I found Part Two to be an enlightening insight into the lives of Afghan tribesmen and a touching tribute to a culture that both East and West have decimated by design.

Aaron Harel, the man who barely survives the Yom Kippur war, is a mujahidin in every sense of the word. Six months after the war has ended he still battles to regain the strength and abilities he lost to injuries. When approached by the Israeli Mossad to work as an agent for their cause, he declines. The gentle life of a loving wife, home and family was stolen from him in his youth but hes beginning to find hope again with the nurse who worked to bring the shattered remnants of him back to life, Sagretta Sharone. When Sagrettas life is abruptly taken in a terrorist attack, Aaron turns to the Mossad. He has become the ideal Mossad agent-a multi-lingual warrior, at ease in many cultures and filled with rage and an insatiable hunger for revenge. In a touching and exciting Part Four, Harels past, present and future meld when he returns to Afghanistan as a Mossad operative working undercover with the CIA.

In Mujahidin, author Mohrlang does more than simply spin a fascinating tale of man as a modern warrior. He takes the truest, fullest measure of what it means to be a man. We learn of pain and courage, despair and honor, through glimpses into friendships and cultures far removed from our familiar modern lives. I highly recommend Mujahidin as a must have, must read novel. -Laurel Johnson Midwest Book Review

5 Of 5 Stars
Mohrlang is the new master of adventure in exotic locales...."

The violence of the modern Middle East forms the background for this well-spun tale of war and international intrigue. Aaron, the young son of an Israeli and an itinerant American diplomat, moves to Afghanistan where he learns the values of a mujahidin, a tribal warrior, from the local Pushtu. The maturing young man comes to value love, honor, courage, loyalty and respect for others. Returning to Israel and injured in the Yom Kippur War, he joins the Mossad -- partly out of desire to avenge the tragic assassination of his fiancé by terrorists, but also because his fierce warrior nature will not allow him to leave military service. He eventually gets his revenge, but finds it is not the balm he had expected. Enter the CIA, which recruits him to investigate a new Soviet tank in Afghanistan. Here, after an interval of decades, he encounters old friends and enemies in a shattering denouement. In the end, in the face of many disappointments and seemingly endless fighting, the mature Aaron has outgrown the warrior, and at last learned the wisdom of Hippocrates: that all learning begins with death and tragedy and goes out into the light.

Morhlangs story is a deft treatment of a complex subject. His characters are not limited by the regional politics, which allow such contradictions as an Israeli adopting Muslim Afghanistan as his home, and soldiers from many nationalities replacing a defunct Soviet war machine to fight the same restive warriors -- their former allies -- in the countrys high ambush-laden valleys. Stylistically, his brush is fluid and sure. The ease with which he constructs scene after scene, with pages of natural dialogue, fully-drawn characters, and colorful backdrops, shows the hand of a master. Throw in a few spy gadgets and asides to hushed conferences at Langley, and LeCarre or Clancy would find new competition! Mohrlang is the new master of adventure in exotic locales, and, with such a solid and timely contribution as Mujahidin, there can be little doubt that his future efforts will continue to dazzle. Buy Mujahidin, and learn something about a remote part of the world that has recently been thrust into the limelight."

Reviewed by Glenn L Roberts,
Author of Piranhoia