In the wake of the World Trade Center bombing, New York City has become ground zero for an intricate web of betrayals and double-crosses in the shadowy world of Muslim radicals. Samir Amir arrives in Brooklyn via Iran, and into a world of militants, arms suppliers, and spies. Sami, an operative from a hidden branch of the Iranian counter-intelligence apparatus, was born to an American mother and was raised in a Catholic school in Tehran, and so has always stood apart from his countrymen. Because of his unique background, he's been sent to the United States to investigate rumored terrorist plots that are to culminate around Christmas and New Year's, several weeks away.

But Sami intuits that he's been set up; at the same time falls in love with an American woman who has been his confidante and cohort. When the truth of his mission becomes clear, Sami resolves to stop what he's inadvertently put in motion. Full of sharp, intelligent language and glimpses of a city that few of us really know, The Poet Game is a fascinating and exciting ride beneath bridges, behind warehouse doors, and through the locked corridors of an invisible New York.