This book is so good. Whitehead has a way of crafting a narrative that is both engaging and enlightening without resorting to any genre expectations and yet he seems to use genre as a jumping off point. My only complaint about the book is that it ended too soon. Not that the story wasn't perfectly told within the 224 pages but that I liked reading so much I simply didn't want it to end. What impressed me most of all is Whitehead's restraint in telling a focused and well researched story without careening into a dump of excess historical research.