This is the story of Augustus Rose -- half African-American, half Italian; journalist, lover, restauranteur, unlikely terrorist -- and his interrogator, Harper, a Grand Inquisitor armed with twenty-first century cruelty, clarity and charisma. As Harper's assault on his body and soul intensifies, Augustus raises the only shield he has: memory. His mind turns to the women in his life, from his outcast mother, to the vigilante who recruited him, to the last female tenderness he's ever likely to know. Outshining them all is the memory of the stunning, wealthy and white Selina, and the love affair that began in 1960s Manhattan -- an epic, taboo mix of politics and passion that would lead Augustus from Harlem to Greenwich Village, from El Salvador to Barcelona, from Morocco to a bleak Scottish island where hope or death must overcome...