This book has certain attractions and should be given a fair chance by readers of literary fiction with smart international political intrigues. Maybe I will give it another shot someday, it could not hold me this first time around. Who knows Rahman’s first book has marked him as an up and coming novelist.. I may run into his work again and will surely give a look. I learned of this book from a list something like “Best contemporary fiction for philosophers.” Indeed much of the dialogue between the two friends at the center of the book has a socratic quality. As suggested by the title, the friends inquiries of each other are of an epistemological nature– that is: what do we know-how do we know it- what are the limits of our knowledge-does it matter? Exactly! No.. very little excitement, little drama.. Despite the setting over several decades across the globe Pakistan, Oxford ,Wall Street.