The Messiah and His Lover

"Patient X", the "Messiah" in the narrative, is found in an unnamed city in the middle of a war zone in the Middle East suffering from total amnesia. The first half of the book takes place there. But while X knows nothing about himself, he has clairvoyant powers to read minds and feel total empathy for anyone around him. Escaping from an army hospital where he witnesses torture, he meets Leila, a local photojournalist, who takes him in. They fall in love and marry. Leila is pregnant when X ...