The Bridges of Constantine is a poignant fresco of Algeria over the last fifty years, a searing love story and a hymn to a lost city. Khaled, a former revolutionary in the Algerian war of liberation has been in self-exile in Paris for two decades, disgusted by the corruption that now riddles the country he once fought for. Now a celebrated painter, he is surprised at the opening of one of his exhibitions to see Hayat, the daughter of his old revolutionary commander. A child when he last saw her, she has now become a seductive young novelist.

As Khaled is consumed with passion...