A morning, in an aristocratic neighborhood of London: the narrator, a senior executive in the banking sector, around forty, whose career is collapsing and his marriage is falling apart, receives an unexpected visit at his home. At first, he does not recognize the man who presents himself at his door, with a backpack on his back and a weary appearance. However, the man addresses him as if continuing a conversation that has just been interrupted. It is Zafar, his former classmate at Oxford, a mathematical genius who had disappeared for many years. The narrator offers him his hospitality. This is the beginning of a long conversation between the two men. Thus begins this rich, intricate, and ambitious novel. Beyond the narration of one man's life, it invites us on a great journey, from Great Britain to continental Europe, and from the United States to Asia. Two voices alternate and discuss with each other: that of the narrator, gradually revealed - childhood and youth memories in a privileged environment, intellectual and cosmopolitan, professional career in the financial sector. And that of his friend Zafar. Through the conversations and narratives, Zafar's life unfolds. Coming from a humble background, he immigrates with his family from Bangladesh to England. With brilliant studies behind him, in mathematics and law, he works in the financial sector in New York and then as a lawyer in London, from where he leaves to work in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, and from there to Afghanistan. We also witness his romantic adventures, especially his complicated relationship with Emily, a charismatic scion of British high society.
And all this takes place in a world marked by chaos and insecurity, where everything changes rapidly and where crises and conflicts - war, economic, moral - abound. Rahman offers us a "total" novel, about roots, the invention of identity, exile, racism, class relations, faith, and betrayal, a magnificent panorama of the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.