From one of our most critically acclaimed authors comes a masterly story of terrorism and revenge and one man's attempts to extricate himself from his past.

Thomas Railles, an American expatriate and former "odd-jobber" for the CIA, is a respected painter living with his beloved wife, Florette, in the south of France. On an ordinary autumn day, Florette goes for a walk in the hills and is killed by unknown assailants. Her death devastates Thomas, and in the weeks and months that follow he struggles to make sense of a world that seems defined by violence and pain.

Each night Thomas tracks the war in Iraq on the evening news while Florette's killers remain at large. When French officials detain four Moroccan terrorists and charge them with Florette's murder, Thomas is invited to witness the interrogation. The experience completely undoes him, changing his world utterly, and he finds himself unable to remain at a distance from America, the country he left so long ago.

Ward Just's most gripping and insightful novel yet, Forgetfulness is a haunting depiction of the corrosive effects of today's war on terror and its unexpected consequences for the individual conscience.