Chapter 1

Abstract

Omar’s carefully manicured life in Paris seemed perfect—a prestigious University Chair, a successful and beautiful wife, two lovely children, and a terrific apartment in a trendy Parisian neighborhood. What could be better? Then one day in November of 2000, he began to doubt himself. As he strolled into a hushed lecture hall to teach his class, he had the sudden and unexpected inclination to pinch his forearm. For some reason, he wanted to make sure this lecture event was more than a dream. His left eye began to twitch. A deeply repressed thought surfaced. How could Omar Dia, the oldest son of a millet farmer from Niger, have become an esteemed professor of comparative literature at the Sorbonne? Standing there before hundreds of people, another repressed realization swept into his consciousness: like most people in the world, he used external appearances to camouflage internal doubts. In public, he covered his body, which is as tall and thin as the desert trees that grow in his parched homeland, with the latest Parisian fashions. He liked suits of muted black and dark gray fabrics. Protected by these elegant clothes, he carried himself with grace, moving with calculated deliberation and speaking with quiet eloquence.