The coup (Random House Trade Paperback Edition.)

The Coup describes violent events in the imaginary African nation of Kush, a large, landlocked, drought-ridden, sub-Saharan country led by Colonel Hakim FAAAa AaAAaAa AaAAAAAaAA AAaAAAaAaAAAa AaAAaAAAaAA!AAAAAaAA!AAaAaAA(c)lix Ellello. (';A leader,' writes Colonel Ellello, ';is one who, out of madness or goodness, takes upon himself the woe of a people.

There are few men so foolish.') Colonel Ellello has four wives, a silver Mercedes, and a fanatic aversioncultural, ideological, and personalto the United States.

But the U.S. keeps creeping into Kush, and the repercussions of this incursionconstitute the events of the novel.

Colonel Ellello tells his own storyalways elegantly, and often in the third personfrom an undisclosed location in the South of France.From the Trade Paperback edition.