Nine years after his assassination, in 1993, Algerian novelist, poet and journalist Tahar Djaout achieved his greatest acclaim—France’s prestigious Prix Méditerranée—for this tale of malevolent bureaucracy, thoughtless fundamentalism and the danger of sacrificing liberty in the name of patriotism. Subtly evocative, the cover design reinforces the title by incorporating the iconography of the Algerian flag within the eye of an onlooking stranger.