Set amid the current tension and violence of the Middle East, Whitbread
Award-winning Nicholas Mosley's new novel features over a half-dozen
characters searching for a way to quell the selfdestructive impulses of
society. As the novel develops, the actions and aspirations of these
characters--which include a Muslim student working on the most deadly of
biological weapons, a young Israeli girl trapped in a temple's ruins,
and an eccentric ex-guru who has mysteriously disappeared--create a
textual and philosophical pattern illustrating the role chance and
coincidence play in our world. In the vein of Hopeful Monsters and The
Hesperides Tree, Mosley mixes science, philosophy and contemporary
politics around the question of how individual actions can influence the
world.