"The Dream of Scipio," by Ian Pears. Copyright 2002. Fiction for our times. A compelling, complex feat of storytelling that asks, "What is the obligation of the individual in a society under siege? Is virture to be found in engagement, or in neutrality?" In the final days of the Roman Empire, in the years of the Black Death, and in the darkest days of World War II three Frenchmen, from the same village, but separated in time by hundreds of years, wrestle with the challenge. Each is involved with a strong-willed Jewish woman, each must shape his destiny in chaotic circumstances. Entirely different than Pears's art-history centered detective books.