Bookpleasures.com welcomes A.M. Soliman as our guest today.
A.M. is a trial attorney who practices civil rights litigation.
Before entering the law, he was a journalist: a newspaper reporter, a columnist for The Record, a commentator on CNN and NPR, and the producer and director of the 2003 PBS documentary Born in the USA: Muslim Americans.
His opinion writing earned a New Jersey Press Association award.
His fiction draws on the world he knows from the inside — courtrooms, families, and the institutions that decide who gets believed. He writes upmarket literary fiction about law, faith, memory, and the cost of telling the truth.
A.M. lives and practices in New Jersey.
Today, we’ll discuss his novel, Brothers in Service.
Norm: In Brothers in Service, what inspired you to send two brothers down different paths? Did you ever think about flipping their choices?
A.M.: Each brother’s choice represents my own internal conflict. As I was finishing high school—about six years before 9/11—I was accepted into one of the service academies and wanted to serve in the military.
My mother did not approve and, unlike Adam in the novel, who went anyway, I did not. I ended up becoming an attorney instead, after first working as a journalist.
Adam’s story is what I imagine would have happened if I had entered the military and, in hindsight, been sent to Iraq. My first career as a journalist, before I entered the law in my 30s, informed my perspective on both paths.
Norm: Omar believes character shines through in everyday actions, not just the big moments. Do you agree? Was there someone in your life who really shaped how you see duty and responsibility?
A.M: I absolutely agree. I suppose my first example of someone doing their duty was my father doing his duty to us — as a family man.
I also saw my brother-in-law do his duty as an Air Force officer; judges doing their duty in court; and attorneys doing their duty to their clients, under their oath to support the Constitution of the United States. To me, those who do their duty in their everyday actions are part of the collective effort to make this a more perfect union.
Norm: After 9/11, a lot of Muslim Americans felt like they had to prove their loyalty to a country they already called home. Why do you think that expectation emerged? What do you hope readers might rethink about patriotism after reading your book?
A.M: The only two groups of people who believed the fallacy that Islam in any way would teach — or condone — terrorist acts like 9/11 are the misguided terrorists who committed them.
The ignorant people who believe that is what Islam teaches. Meanwhile, the average American at the time didn’t even know that Muslims also believe in the teachings of Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary.
But when the mass media tells you that Muslims are the bad guys, whether that be the news talking about “Islamic terrorists” or
Hollywood turning to Muslims as the bad guys in its films after the Cold War ended, of course many people in this country were bound to question the Muslims living here.
And it’s human nature: when questioned, a person feels bound to answer and prove their loyalty.
And yes, I hope people will think about what patriotism really is. To me, it’s upholding the Constitution and living by it, which includes questioning our leadership and the policies they pursue, or fighting in court when necessary, and supporting each other regardless of race or religion.
Other people may have a different opinion about what it means to be an American. But there’s no denying this: the oath taken by military officers, elected officials, and even licensed attorneys is not to an elected official or a religion.
It’s to the Constitution — for officers and members of Congress, to support and defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I wish more people would actually read it.
Norm: Adam joins the Army with a strong sense of purpose, but his experiences lead to some serious guilt and reflections on his actions. How did you capture the emotional toll of military service without turning Adam into just a hero or a villain?
A.M: I certainly interviewed a lot of veterans when I was still a journalist, before I entered the law.
What was always clearest to me was that they were people doing the best they could in the situation they were placed in.
In the novel—as in history—elected officials sent Adam into someone else’s country with a gun in his hand, based on a false premise, and then what happened, happened as was inevitable for many service members in such a situation.
If anyone was a villain, it’s the policymakers who pursued the war in the first place. But that doesn’t make it any easier for anyone who has been through it. They are entitled to all the support they can get to heal. It’s the least this country can do.
If you write the story from a place where you believe that, it doesn’t come out as black and white, villain or hero. Because it’s not that simple.
Norm: Both Ali and Adam think they’re serving in meaningful ways—one through law and the other through military service—but they still face tough moral dilemmas.
Do you think one way of serving is more effective, or is the reality that doing the right thing is often more complicated than we expect?
A.M: Doing the right thing can sometimes be easy to identify; other times, not so much. I think both ways of serving are necessary. We need a military, and we need lawyers.
What we don’t need is an unnecessary war based on a false premise. Part of this story is how policymakers can make a blunder of international, historical proportions, and the effect it has on regular Americans over decades.
I think part of the point of this story is to do a better job of looking before we leap from now on, and to be less trigger-happy as a country.
Norm: There’s a really interesting tension in the book between public views on patriotism and private experiences.
Do you think we often use grand terms like freedom and duty to sidestep the real human costs of our decisions? How can we have more genuine discussions about those costs?
A.M.: I think this novel is part of that discussion. And the past is prologue. History has shown that propaganda has been used to gin up support for a war of choice in this country, with the media as an accomplice.
Before we know it, people start believing that fighting an unnecessary war in someone else’s country is the “patriotic” thing to do.
To me, the most patriotic thing we can do is protect our blood and treasure. That doesn’t mean that war is never necessary. I think World War II is a prime example of that. It had to be done.
It was also the last time Congress formally declared war, as the Constitution requires. And yet many have since, not all of them necessary.
If someone is going to be brave enough to join our military, knowing they might have to give the last full measure to defend this country, the least we can do is put them in harm’s way only when it’s actually necessary and for a valid reason. Unfortunately, that has not always been the case. But can it be the case moving forward? I hope so.
Norm: The family clearly loves each other but often struggles to share their true feelings. Why do you think people sometimes find it easier to shield their loved ones from the truth than to be open? When does that protective instinct cross the line into doing more harm than good?
A.M: I think that sometimes people don’t realize the truth themselves, so they can’t share it. Sometimes we don’t fully realize why we do what we do, what motivates us, or what might be gnawing at the back of our minds.
In the story, I don’t think either brother knew what was really fueling his anger at the other. But if they do know the true reason for something and shield the other from it, I think it does more harm when the truth takes a back seat to anything else. We can’t begin to deal with something until we truly know what “it” is.
Norm: The book suggests that people can carry deep trauma without always being able to articulate it. What did you want readers to grasp about the difference between what someone shows on the outside and what they’re hiding inside, especially if they seem strong or composed?
A.M: It’s something we all deal with, isn’t it? Maybe, for example, you’re upset because your boss at work snapped at you over something trivial, and you resent him for it.
But what you don’t know is that he’s under a lot of pressure and not sleeping well because his child is sick and the doctors can’t diagnose him, and snapping at you wasn’t really about you.
We never know what people are dealing with on the inside, so even if you don’t accept what they did to you, the best thing to do is still give love.
That’s not always easy. But it’s the only way to avoid an unnecessary escalation in a friendship or relationship worth preserving.
Norm: As we end our interview, where can our readers find out more about you and Brothers in Service?
A.M: At amsoliman.com. Brothers in Service is available on Amazon.
My new novel, The Name She Carries, is published November 10. Thank you!
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