The devil and Webster : a novel / Jean Hanff Korelitz.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the New York Times bestselling author of You Should Have Known and Admission , a twisty new novel about a college president, a baffling student protest, and some of the most hot-button issues on today's college campuses.

Naomi Roth is the first female president of Webster College, a once conservative school now known for producing fired-up, progressive graduates. So Naomi isn't surprised or unduly alarmed when Webster students begin the fall semester with an outdoor encampment around "The Stump"-a traditional campus gathering place for generations of student activists-to protest a popular professor's denial of tenure. A former student radical herself, Naomi admires the protestors' passion, especially when her own daughter, Hannah, joins their ranks.

Then Omar Khayal, a charismatic Palestinian student with a devastating personal history, emerges as the group's leader, and the demonstration begins to consume Naomi's life, destabilizing Webster College from the inside out. As the crisis slips beyond her control, Naomi must take increasingly desperate measures to protect her friends, colleagues, and family from an unknowable adversary.

Touching on some of the most topical and controversial concerns at the heart of our society, this riveting novel examines the fragility that lies behind who we think we are-and what we think we believe.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

A consummate actor, Burton hits all the right notes delving into the conflicted inner life of Webster College President Naomi Roth: she convincingly portrays Roth's pain that her daughter is growing older and moving on, and as she deals with a student rebellion and its leader, Palestinian student Omar Kayal, whom she at once admires and distrusts. Burton makes listeners ponder, as Roth does, sets of antithetical values: freedom and discipline, friendship and principles, youthful idealism and unrestrained rebellion, pity and common sense. This is a thought-provoking book and Burton's narration is excellent throughout. A Grand Central hardcover. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

As a college student, Naomi Roth questioned authority. Now, as the first woman president of elite Webster College, Naomi Roth is the authority. When a protest over the denial of tenure for a beloved professor evolves into an unruly, Occupy Wall Street-type tent encampment on campus, Roth tries to keep both an open mind and an open door. Roundly ignored by students and increasingly excoriated by peers, press, and parents, Roth faces further challenges when tensions and violence escalate. At the heart of the demonstrations is Omar Khayal, a Palestinian student who famously lost his family to sectarian unrest and escaped to the U.S. rather than be recruited as a suicide bomber. Quiet, charismatic, and eloquent, Khayal captures media attention and captivates students, especially Roth's own daughter, Hannah. In the strength and conviction with which her defiant student and dedicated college president address entitlement and acceptance, prejudice and privilege, Korelitz, author of the best-selling You Should Have Known (2014), taps into the current unsettled campus and cultural zeitgeist with eerie precision.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2017 Booklist