An Italian who has been working for two years in Tunisia surveyingancient graffiti comes to terms with a different culture just as he isreturning to Italy to attend his mother’s funeral. His impermanence,his loneliness not bridged by a friend and an Arab lover, and hisaffection of invincible attraction to fate, prove to be the cause of adramatic incident: he is attacked by brigands on horseback during ajourney undertaken by bus and seriously injured. The Italian is shotin the eyes, but the precarious condition of blindness seems to offerhim special foresight: before dying, his Arab friend tells him abouthis own life, and in that imaginative narrative, full of mysteries,symbols, and spells, the Italian finally recognizes the impossibilityof leaving Africa.
