"Kabul, ten years after 9/11. Dismembered by decades of war and jerry-rigged by foreign aid, the city is flooded by journalists, relief workers, and messianic idealists living cheek by jowl in sterile compounds. They throw parties, sell their stories before they happen, trying to save others and redeem themselves ... When a car explodes in a crowded city street, journalist Michiko Oketani is shocked to discover that its passengers were acquaintances--a tawdry love triangle--from expat circles ... Drawn to the secret fabrications of these strangers, and increasingly convinced the events that led to the fatal explosion weren't random, Michiko follows a paper trail that leads beyond Kabul to Louisiana, Maine, Quebec, and Dubai"--