Translated from French by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott. Kerim Neto returns to his hometown, a city on Africa's Atlantic coast, to search for Mina, his former model, lover, and muse. But Mina has disappeared. He combs the streets and byways he has known, hoping to find her. He questions his old friends from the theatre, with whom he and Mina had performed and mocked the country's army and dictators. But these friends have now joined the establishment, they are now imams,