After the September 11th attacks, the author returns to the Middle East. This first-person, high-level blog-like book, serialized in Le Monde in May 2002, proceeds day by day, beginning October 13, 2001, in autumnal Cairo, where he sees the impact of Osama bin Laden, a "great communicator," on Egypt's youth, and ending in April 2002 in L.A., contemplating Hollywood's failed attempts to come to grips with an "imperious, wounded America."