"Shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States," the author explained, "I knew I wanted to write a book against the backlash of those events.

I came close many times, but American publishers appeared to fear the political content of the work and several of them admitted this candidly or even asked me to 'sanitize' the novel.

[1] The title refers to the protagonist, a middle-aged botanist named Arnold Brinkman, who takes his nephew to Yankee Stadium for a baseball game.

During the seventh-inning stretch, fans are asked to rise for the singing of "God Bless America"[Notes 1] in honor of two Bronx soldiers killed in the line of duty.

"When the stadium cameras inevitably find him," wrote reviewer Steve Donoghue, "and put his picture up on the jumbo-tron for the fans and all the home viewers to see, Arnold does the unforgivable: he sticks out his tongue.