"This liberating and important book shows us how to break out of the self-defeating behavior patterns that have been keeping us from attaining our most cherished goals. Many of our most serious psychological problems can be traced to a special form of guilt: the hidden guilt we feel toward our parents or other loved ones. Somewhere back in childhood we came to believe that by achieving independence, happiness or success, we would harm the ones we love. We judged ourselves guilty of imaginary crimes and have been punishing ourselves ever since. This book introduces us to a new approach to psycholocical healing, never before presented in a book for the general public. Many previous readers have found this book a profound step on their road to psychological recovery."--Publisher.

4 CITIES, 4 LIVES, 1 CRIME - In Madrid, an Argentinian bookseller gets caught up in the scheme of an American professor to prevent an appalling crime. Her sidekicks soon include a Gambian migrant in Paris and a Spanish waitress in London. Seeking some sort of companionship in their exiles, the four characters join forces in a quest that becomes a dangerous obsession. All four lives seem to be fatefully connected. But how to get people to take the crime seriously if it does not yet exist? In Buenos Aires, the criminals are remorselessly pursued. They cross paths with a Nigerian judge, the wife of one of General Franco's thugs, a caretaker to the wealthy, and Peter Halbtsen, an expert in Chinese culture. It is early March 2004. Halbtsen has spent years deciphering a book which may hold the key to the mystery. But where is the crime? Who is the criminal? And can anything be done to prevent humanity from reaping the whirlwind?

In this work, Salman Akhtar looks at how many fathers unconsciously, and sometimes quite consciously, attempt to revise their own traumatized childhood by providing their children with possibilities for "a good life", of which they were deprived.