While books are the foundation of Boualem's life, flora and memory are key concepts in his story. Flora helps exemplify the variety of ideas and robust debate that hopefully germinate and take root in a healthy and growing society needs. Here, though, state effort is focused on cutting away branches that do not meet V.B. standards and, if possible, destroying it at its roots:

The new order would like to prune humanity, but also every individual human being. Expurgate, amputate, purify. Of memory leave only what celebrates the Revelation, of knowledge leave only what asks no questions, of man leave only the part that is submissive to God - a God whose outlines have been carefully drawn by the new masters: He knows no love, no forgiveness, no compassion and no tolerance. He is the God of vengeance and punishment.

Thus, as Alek Baylee Toumi points out in the introduction to this newly released University of Nebraska Press edition, it is no coincidence that Yekker means "he stood up" in Djaout's native tongue. Even though Boualem's wife and children leave him because they conform to the fundamentalist approach and consider him a pariah, he remains steadfast in his belief in words, ideas and philosophy on paper. Yet in feeling like he stands alone, memory is perhaps the only refuge because his society now breeds individual isolation and mistrust. This refuge contrasts sharply with the stark reality of his current life. And even though thousands of mainstream Muslims may agree with Boualem, "[e]veryone is barricaded behind a bulwark of hypocrisy and artificial piety."

Through Boualem, Djaout makes it painfully clear that we cannot paint all Muslims with the same extremist brush, something that too often tends to happen in the wake of September 11th and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is, rather, a story of what fundamentalist Islamic extremists will do to their own. Nor is Djaout examining perils to which only Arab or Muslim countries are exposed. Comparisons can also be made to the cultural wars in the United States, where some seek to make science subservient to dogma. In Boualem's world, the dictates of government-approved knowledge mean science can "pay attention only to those questions not settled in the Book."

As much as Bjaout intended and we wish that this be a cautionary tale, it also reflects recent realities. That sad fact may lend even greater power to his work.