Chaos of the senses

The second part of Ahlam Mosteghanemi's trilogy, following "Memory in the Flesh". The author, the protagonist of the novel, seeks to write a new book. She meets a journalist, and a love story blossoms between them. Then, the writer discovers that her lover is obsessed with "Khaled bin Toubal", the hero of her first novel, the painter who lost an arm in the liberation war, and who signs his articles with Khaled's name. She borrows a book from his library and is captivated by the handwritten marginalia added by its reader alongside the original text. Like "Memory in the Flesh", "Chaos of the Senses" features a love story with three protagonists, not two. By chance, during the lovers' final meeting, when Khaled tells her he doesn't want them to continue together, she learns from him that the house he lives in and the library within it do not belong to him but to Abdel Haq, his journalist friend who is on the run from Islamists who threatened him with death. Thus, the author realizes that she is repeating the same scenario as the story of "Memory in the Flesh". The one she loves is not Khaled but his friend Abdel Haq. As usual, love misses its target.