[2] But the real inspirer and leading actor of the novel is "Charlie", to which the author devotes many pages and between the lines attributed the success of the Italian contingent which left Lebanon unscathed.

Angioni was therefore aware of the peculiar capacity of the Captain Cantatore, and just landed off the ship in the Beirut harbor had given him the task of liaising with all Lebanese factions, under the cover of the press information officer.

Cantatore, when returned from Lebanon disappeared from the scene, he was great friend of Oriana Fallaci, it seems, he has continued to work for the' Italian intelligence.

Whilst on guard duty, he meets Ninette, a beautiful Christian Lebanese woman with whom he cannot communicate as she pretends not to speak French for reasons unknown to Angelo.

On the way back to purchases Ninette an anchor shaped cross with the Virgin Mary inscribed on it to apologize for missing their rendez-vous.

Angelo's friend Gino, a gentle poet, is severely wounded by Khalid Passepartout, a vicious child soldier in the service of the Shi'ite militia "the Sons of God."

He admits to her that friendship is more important than love to him, and this hurts Ninette who expresses to him in a letter, written in perfect French, that she can no longer see him.

French paratroopers vacating a tower in the center of Beirut causes fighting to break out between Amal, a Shi'ite militia and mainly Christian government forces.

Angelo again vows revenge, and whilst on guard duty he encounters Passepartout who is wearing Gino's bersaglieri helmet.

In the interview she states that the meaning of life is contained in the word "in sha Allah"-- "as God wills"—there is no rationality, no way to predict the future, just a series of events that are all interlocking but completely incomprehensible when viewed above from human eyes.

In the final scene Angelo looks across the prow of the boat and sees Rashid's motorboat speeding towards the Italian convoy.

Boltzmann's equation for entropy is heavily featured in the book, seen as a mathematical formula for the seemingly irrational chaos enfolding in Beirut.

In the end they are discredited by a single word-- "In sha Allah"--"As God Wills" which Ninette states is the very essence of our complex and irrational lives.

Bilal fights for the creation of an Islamic state, whereas Ghassan was drawn into the conflict after the murder of his father by Muslim extremists who then razed his family's seaside villa.

"Maybe he couldn't bear the dejection of having proved a fact that even newborns divine, the invincibility of death, and out of consistency he surrendered to it before his time.