This highly relevant novel, awarded the Grand Prix of the French Academy (2017), takes place in France, Ethiopia, Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Turkey, Algeria, Egypt and Malta, where the strands of the web converge in the capital Valletta espionage, drug trafficking and weapons smuggling. An archaeologist, a famous journalist, a diplomat, an agent of the French secret service, the leader of an Islamist group, a double agent, a French student, a Somali refugee, a religious fanatic, an Algerian errand boy for the mafia... in this kaleidoscope of people and destinies, the reader is presented with a multi-layered, contradictory and the absolutely recognizable reality of the global chaos in which we all live today. "The Mechanics of Chaos" is a masterfully written polyphonic novel, a kind of snapshot of today's page in turbulent human history.