The year 1952 begins badly in Cairo. A mob burns every building in the city-dooming the future of the degenerate king and every foreigner and Jew. Youssef Cohen's father sends Youssef, his mother Odette, and his sister to Europe, where he hopes they will be safe; he has no idea that just a few months later, his wife will be dead and Youssef and his sister will be without a mother. In this fictionalized memoir, loosely based on true events, Youssef Cohen shares a poignant story told through the eyes of a man who lost his mother as a child and, forty years later, is still haunted by the memories. He embarks on a quest to learn more about his mother; his search takes him from Manhattan to Venice to Sao Paolo and finally to Cairo. In a narrative stitched together with letters, photographs, and memories of the people he meets along the way, the man creates a fascinating tapestry of his forgotten past. But before the man reaches his mother's grave at a Jewish cemetery in Bassatine, he must understand his own identity in order to heal from the loss he suffered so many years ago.

The year 1952 begins badly in Cairo. A mob burns every building in the city-dooming the future of the degenerate king and every foreigner and Jew. Youssef Cohen's father sends Youssef, his mother Odette, and his sister to Europe, where he hopes they will be safe; he has no idea that just a few months later, his wife will be dead and Youssef and his sister will be without a mother. In this fictionalized memoir, loosely based on true events, Youssef Cohen shares a poignant story told through the eyes of a man who lost his mother as a child and, forty years later, is still haunted by the memories. He embarks on a quest to learn more about his mother; his search takes him from Manhattan to Venice to Sao Paolo and finally to Cairo. In a narrative stitched together with letters, photographs, and memories of the people he meets along the way, the man creates a fascinating tapestry of his forgotten past. But before the man reaches his mother's grave at a Jewish cemetery in Bassatine, he must understand his own identity in order to heal from the loss he suffered so many years ago.

Latin American democracies of the sixties and seventies, most theories hold, collapsed because they had become incompatible with the structural requirements of capitalist development. In this groundbreaking application of game theory to political phenomena, Youssef Cohen argues that structural conditions in Latin American countries did not necessarily preclude the implementation of social and economic reforms within a democratic framework.
Focusing on the experiences of Chile and Brazil, Cohen argues that what thwarted democratic reforms in Latin America was a classic case of prisoner's dilemma. Moderates on the left and the right knew the benefits of coming to a mutual agreement on socio-economic reforms. Yet each feared that, if it cooperated, the other side could gain by colluding with the radicals. Unwilling to take this risk, moderate groups in both countries splintered and joined the extremists. The resulting disorder opened the way for military control.
Cohen further argues that, in general, structural explanations of political phenomena are inherently flawed; they incorrectly assume that beliefs, preferences, and actions are caused by social, political, and economic structures. One cannot explain political outcomes, Cohen argues, without treating beliefs and preferences as partly independent from structures, and as having a causal force in their own right.