IT IS 9/11 and lower Manhattan is under attack. Martin Stein, his face pressed against a window on the 88th floor of World Trade Center 2, watches a gaping hole in the neighboring tower grow with ever increasing speed. Fire and smoke pour out of the building. Bewildered and terrorized, he joins an escaping crowd and begins to bargain with God. If he is saved, he promises to memorialize this catastrophe in a film that would honor all that was being lost. Elijah: A Novel of 9/11 is a superbly written account of a successful screenwriter and director who was on the South Tower when the planes struck on 9/11, and who is now obsessed with fulfilling his bargain with God and making a film about the tragedy. The prophet Elijah is a constant visitor, invisible to everyone but him. Their stimulating discussions about the nature of people, the meaning of events, the history of religion and what God really wants from us are as entertaining as the story plot itself.