A master not only of fiction but also of fiercely controversial political engagement, Martin Amis here gathers fourteen pieces that constitute an evolving, provocative, a nd insightful examination of the most momentous event of our time. At the heart of this collection is the long essay “Terro r a nd Bo r edom,” an unsparing analysis of Islamic fundamentalism a nd the West’s flummoxed response to it, while other pieces address the invasion of Iraq, the realities of Iran, a nd Tony Blair’s lingering departure fr om Downing Street (a nd also his trips to Washington a nd Iraq). Amis’s reviews of pertinent books a nd films, fr om The Looming Tower to United 93, provide a far-ranging survey of other responses to these calamitous issues, which are further explo r ed in two sho r t sto r ies: “The Last Days of Muhammed Atta,” its subject self-evident, a nd “In the Palace of the End,” narrated by a Middle Eastern tyrant’s double whose duties include epic lovemaking, grotesque to r ture, a nd the duplication on his own body of the injuries sustained by his alter ego in constant assassination attempts. Whether lambasted fo r his refusal to kowtow to Muslim pieties o r hailed fo r his common sense, wide reading, a nd astute perspective, Amis is indisputably a great pleasure to read—info r med, elegant, surprising—a nd this collection a resounding contemplation of the relentless, manifold dangers we suddenly find ourselves living with.