Diane Scharper  Charged with selecting a memorial for the site
of the terrorist attacks in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, a jury
must choose between two finalists from among 5,000 anonymous
submissions. One finalist, the Void, a black granite rectangle
12 stories high, is considered too dark by some. The other
finalist, the Garden, with a pavilion, two perpendicular canals,
trees in orchard-like rows and a high white wall, seems just
right—until the designer’s name is revealed. Then all hell
breaks loose.  Amy Waldman’s first novel, The Submission, charts
the layers of that hell in a searing tale about racial profiling
following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Waldman, whose short
fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The Boston Review and
other publications, was a co-chief of the South Asia bureau of
The New York Times and knows her territory well. Her depiction
of Muslim life, customs, places, rituals and shrines in the
United States and in countries like India and Bangladesh is
impeccable. Waldman also has a shar