"A furious and passionate indictment of injustice . . . and everyday oppression."-BooklistFrom the renowned author of The Last Summer of Reason comes this award-winning, morally resonant fable of -bureaucracy, fundamentalism, and the danger of sacrificing liberty in the name of patriotism.Sensuously written and passionately political, The Watchers follows the fortunes of two neighbors-an old soldier and a young inventor. The inventor"s efforts to patent a loom quickly devolve into a Kafkaesque tangle of forms, passports, and malevolent, suspicious clerks; his mysterious project also leads the soldier and his fellow veterans deeper into a labyrinth of suspicion and fear.This chilling, elegant novel features Tahar Djaout at his incisive best-and, at a time when civil liberties are constantly challenged, allows readers to contemplate the dark con-sequences of a culture of spies.