The Last Summer of Reason

This elegant and haunting novel casts us deep into the world of bookstore owner Boualem Yekker. He lives in a country being overtaken by a radically conservative party known as the Vigilant Brothers, a group that seeks to control every element of life according to the laws of their stringent moral theology: No work of beauty created by human hands should rival the wonders of their god. Once treasured, art and literature are now despised.
Silently holding his ground, Boualem withstands the new regime, using the shop and his personal history as weapons against puritanical forces. Readers are taken into the lush depths of the bookseller's dreams, the memories of his now empty family life, his passion for literature - then yanked back into the terror and drudgery of his daily routine by the vandalism, assaults, and death warrants that afflict him.

" One is reminded of how life-affirming and dangerous literature still can be." -- "Minneapolis Star Tribune"
" "The Last Summer of Reason" has acquired a new and haunting immediacy since the attacks of September 11. . . . Deftly translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager, and with a foreword by Wole Soyinka, the novel provides an anguished dispatch from what nearly became Algeria' s future. . . . An elegiac ode to literature and a furious protest against intolerance." -- Adam Shatz, "New York"" Times"
" One is reminded of how life-affirming and dangerous literature still can be. " -- Minneapolis Star Tribune
" The Last Summer of Reason has acquired a new and haunting immediacy since the attacks of September 11. . . . Deftly translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager, and with a foreword by Wole Soyinka, the novel provides an anguished dispatch from what nearly became Algeria ' s future. . . . An elegiac ode to literature and a furious protest against intolerance. " -- Adam Shatz, New York Times
""The Last Summer of Reason" has acquired a new and haunting immediacy since the attacks of September 11. . . . Deftly translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager, and with a foreword by Wole Soyinka, the novel provides an anguished dispatch from what nearly became Algeria's future. . . . An elegiac ode to literature and a furious protest against intolerance."--Adam Shatz, "New York"" Times"
"One is reminded of how life-affirming and dangerous literature still can be."-Minneapolis Star Tribune

"The Last Summer of Reason has acquired a new and haunting immediacy since the attacks of September 11. . . . Deftly translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager, and with a foreword by Wole Soyinka, the novel provides an anguished dispatch from what nearly became Algeria's future. . . . An elegiac ode to literature and a furious protest against intolerance." -- Adam Shatz "New York Times"

?The Last Summer of Reason has acquired a new and haunting immediacy since the attacks of September 11. . . . Deftly translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager, and with a foreword by Wole Soyinka, the novel provides an anguished dispatch from what nearly became Algeria's future. . . . An elegiac ode to literature and a furious protest against intolerance. Adam Shatz, New York Times -- Adam Shatz "New York Times"

"The Last Summer of Reason provides a powerful and strangely beautiful reminder of the danger of letting violent ideological fundamentalism fester. We would do well to heed this reminder now, not later." -- Jennifer Bryson "Public Discourse" (01/16/2009)

""The Last Summer of "Reason has acquired a new and haunting immediacy since the attacks of September 11. . . . Deftly translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager, and with a foreword by Wole Soyinka, the novel provides an anguished dispatch from what nearly became Algeria's future. . . . An elegiac ode to literature and a furious protest against intolerance."--Adam Shatz, "New York Times"--Adam Shatz "New York Times "

"The Last Summer of "Reason has acquired a new and haunting immediacy since the attacks of September 11. . . . Deftly translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager, and with a foreword by Wole Soyinka, the novel provides an anguished dispatch from what nearly became Algeria s future. . . . An elegiac ode to literature and a furious protest against intolerance. Adam Shatz, "New York Times"--Adam Shatz "New York Times ""

""The Last Summer of Reason p"rovides a powerful and strangely beautiful reminder of the danger of letting violent ideological fundamentalism fester. We would do well to heed this reminder now, not later." Jennifer Bryson, "Public Discourse"--Jennifer Bryson"Public Discourse" (01/16/2009)"

The Last Summer of Reason has acquired a new and haunting immediacy since the attacks of September 11. . . . Deftly translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager, and with a foreword by Wole Soyinka, the novel provides an anguished dispatch from what nearly became Algeria s future. . . . An elegiac ode to literature and a furious protest against intolerance. Adam Shatz, New York Times--Adam Shatz "New York Times ""

"The Last Summer of Reason has acquired a new and haunting immediacy since the attacks of September 11. . . . Deftly translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager, and with a foreword by Wole Soyinka, the novel provides an anguished dispatch from what nearly became Algeria's future. . . . An elegiac ode to literature and a furious protest against intolerance."--Adam Shatz, New York Times--Adam Shatz "New York Times "

"The Last Summer of Reason provides a powerful and strangely beautiful reminder of the danger of letting violent ideological fundamentalism fester. We would do well to heed this reminder now, not later."--Jennifer Bryson, Public Discourse--Jennifer Bryson"Public Discourse" (01/16/2009)