The aim of this essay is to compare the reactions to the 2001 attack to the Twin Towers as they are related and reflected upon in Western and non- Western fiction. We start from the analysis of a novel by a Pakistani author, Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Then , we compare the genesis of a terrorist, as it is depicted by the American author John Updike in Terrorist , and the creation of a terrorist by the media, which is the main subject of The Unknown Terrorist by the Australian 2014 Man Booker Prize Winner Richard Flanagan. DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-23 Bibliography Albertazzi, Silvia. 2011. “Un fragile simulacro, un parco a tema”: Manhattan nei romanzi del post 9/11. A cura di Roberto Vecchi & Rita Monticelli. Topografia delle culture . Bologna: I libri di Emil, 161-178. Albertazzi, Silvia. 2012. Belli e perdenti . Roma: Armando Editore, 137-164. Albertazzi, Silvia. 2013. Sous les yeux de l’Orient: les consequences du 11-Septembre dans la fiction postcoloniale recente. Cecile Girardin & Philip Whyte eds. Continuit e, classicisme, conservatisme dans les litteratures postcoloniales . Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 195-204. Appadurai, Arjun. 2006. Fear of Small Numbers. An Essay on the Geography of Anger . Durham-London: Duke University Press. Barthes, Roland. 1984. Le bruissement de la langue . Paris: Seuil. Baudrillard, Jean. 1990. La transparence du mal . Paris: Galilee. Boll, Heinrich. 1974 [2009]. Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie fuhren kann . Leipzig: Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag. Butler, Judith. 2004 [2006]. Precarious Life. The Powers of Mourning and Violence . London: Verso. Conrad, Peter. 2007. Days of Thunder Erupt Down Under. The Observer , 8 April (accessed on 4 November 2015) http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/apr08/crimebooks.features . De Lillo, Don. 2003 [2001]. In the Ruins of the Future: Reflections on Terror and Loss in the Shadow of September. William H. Chafe, Harvard Sitkoff & Beth Bailey eds. A History of Our Time: Readings on Postwar America . New York: Oxford University Press (accessed on 19 July 2010) https://www.questia.com/library/117202936/a-history-of-our-time-readings-on- postwar-america . Eagleton, Terry. 2005. Holy Terror . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Flanagan, Richard. 2007 [2008]. The Unknown Terrorist . London: Atlantic Books. Giglioli, Daniele. 2007. All ’ ordine del giorno e il terrore. Milano: Bompiani. Gilroy, Paul. 2005. Postcolonial Melancholia . New York: Columbia University Press. Ghosh, Amitav. 2006. A Jihadist from Jersey. The Washington Post , 4 June (accessed on 4 November 2015) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/01 . Hamid, Mohsin. 2007 [2008]. The Reluctant Fundamentalist . Orlando: Harcourt Inc. Iweala, Uzodinma. 2007. Unusual Suspect. The New York Times , 22 July (accessed on 4 November 2015) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/books/review/Iaweala . Juergensmeyer, Mark. 2000. Terror in the Mind of God. The Global Rise of Religious Violence. Oakland: the Regents of the University of California. Lasdun, James. 2007. The empire strikes back. The Guardian , 3 March (accessed on 4 November 2015) http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/mar/03/featuresreviews . Moss, Stephen. 2007. The art of darkness. The Guardian , 20 April (accessed on 4 November 2015) http://www.guardian.co.uk.books/2007/apr/20/terrorism.fiction . Olson, Karen. 2007. I Pledge Allegiance. The New York Times , 22 April (accessed on 4 November 2015) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/arts/ . Salmon, Christian. 2004. Prefazione all’edizione italiana. Far rotta verso Sud. Christian Salmon & Joseph Hanimann eds. Diventare minoritari. Per una nuova politica della letteratura . Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 7-19. Stone, Robert. 2006. Americanization, real and imagined. The New York Times , 16 June (accessed on 4 November 2015) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/arts/ . Updike, John. 2007 [2006]. Terrorist. London: Penguin Books. Versluys, Kristian. 2009. Out of the Blue: September 11 and the Novel . New York: Columbia University Press. WuMing1. 2010. Se le donne diventano vittime sacrificali. La Repubblica , 3 September: 55. Žižek, Slavoj. 2002. Welcome to the Desert of the Real. London: Verso.