This whimsical debut glimpses the future of Islam and stars an atheist who flirts with the realities of Paradise and Hell. It’s 2050—New York. In the aftermath of a grueling vision quest on ayahuasca—a psychedelic compound—Ismaeel, a Pakistani-American graduate student, enters an otherworldly alliance with spiritual beings who send him on a perilous journey of self-discovery. A nonbeliever, he must return to Pakistan, now in the grips of a brutal fundamentalist government, and gain the trust of his estranged father, a prominent extremist in the regime. To accomplish this he must pose as a true believer. Thus unfolds his mysterious mission—the Path to High Knowledge—that blends past, the present, as well as Ismaeel’s quest for true understanding of faith. Will he survive long enough to infiltrate his father’s inner sanctum and complete his mission?