"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."--BOOK JACKET.