A hilarious portrait of a figure shuttling between different continents, cultures, and idioms just after the collapse of French-Algerian relations in 1992. Narrated by a North African author exiled to the United States because he has been condemned by religious fanatics after the publication of his novel entitled Dead Letters, Bensmaïa's knowledge of the history, the literature, and the philosophical ideas of our times underlies the novel without intruding into it directly.