please welcome moderator, it karen long and deborah baker, author of "the convert." [applause] >> good morning. it's wonderful to be here and thank you for joining us. i drove here from cleveland and i was delighted to be occupied with a complex object and engaging biographer. deborah baker seems allergic to the facile answer and drawn to flags that are complicated and eliciting more questions than answers. so if that is your cup of tea, you walked into the great room. because margaret marcus, who became mary and jamaal is so complicated, i thought the respect one interesting thing to do would to begin with some of her words. so, we are going to ask deborah baker to read for us. >> hi, thank you for coming. it's great to be in chicago. i love this city so much, especially in such a beautiful day. just a brief thing before i read from this -- this is a letter that very in geneva wrote to her parents on board the ship, a deep crater that was taking her from brooklyn, new york to karachi, pakistan and then she would move to the horror -- lahore, this is the first of the

deborah baker seems allergic to the facile answer and drawn to flags that are complicated and eliciting more questions than answers. so if that is your cup of tea, you walked into the great room. because margaret marcus, who became mary and jamaal is so >> i thought the respectful and interesting thing to do was begin with some of her words, so we're going to ask deborah baker to read for us. >> hi, thank you all for coming. it's great to be in chicago. i love the city so much, and especially on such a beautiful day. just a brief thing before i read from this -- this is a letter that maryann wrote to her parents on board this ship, a brief crater taking her from new york to pakistan, and from there she moved to lahor. this was the first of the letters i found at the new york public library, which was my introduction to margaret markus. may 1962, the torch. this was posted from egypt. after all our good-byes after you, mother, betty, and walter walked down the gangplank and drove off, i was overcome with dread. i stood at the deck rail for a long time stricken. the excitement. weeks lead

. >> and now on book tv, deborah baker talks about the life of margaret marcus, a secular jewish woman from new york who, in 1962, moved to pakistan and converted converted to islam. >> welcome to the 27 annual chicago tribune printer's row late fest, a special thank youal to our sponsors. row before we begin today's programr please turn off your cell phone and all other electric devices. and photographs are not permitted. today's program will be recorded for future broadcast and c-span. is book tv.m wile if there is time at the end for a q&a session with the author we

. >> and now booktv, say deborah baker talks about a jewish womai whostan in 1962 move to pakist. converted to