Londoner Duncan's seventh novel (after The Bloodstone Papers) is as timely as it is heartbreakingwhich is both a warning and a recommendation. Herein is the exquisitely crafted story of Augustus Rose, a man of mixed ethnic background who came to terrorism late in life. The backdrop is the protagonist's harrowing interrogation by the U.S. government, but the narrator's memories of his lover soon take precedence. The mix of brutal politics and wrenching personal emotions is reminiscent of William T. Vollmann or Salman Rushdie. The interrogator's philosophical asides may be a bit much for American readers ("This is the crux. The failure of the scripts. Love, justice, equality, salvation"), but a certain class of readers will devour the book like an emergency broadcast even through our hero's dissolution.Travis Fristoe, Alachua Cty. Lib. Dist., FL Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.