"A French intelligence officer is tasked with tracking down a former member of the U.S. Special Forces suspected of drug trafficking during the war in Afghanistan. On his way to Beirut he shares a night with Mariam, an Iraqi archaeologist, who is in a race against time to save ancient artifacts across the Middle East from the destruction wreaked by ISIS. Woven into these two forceful, gripping storylines are stylish meditations on humankind's bellicose history: Hannibal's failed march on Rome ; Grant's pursuit of the Confederates into rural Virginia; and Emperor Haile Selassie's swift retreat from Ethiopia. Each one a turning point in world history, each revealing a different facet of how nations and individuals face defeat"--inside flap of front cover.