Antoine Leiris’s wife was murdered in the Paris terrorist attacks of November 2015. In the days after the shooting, Leiris wrote a Facebook post that went viral.

The brief online manifesto of defiance, compassion and courage is extraordinarily affecting. But the refusal to succumb to Islamophobia in the original post isn’t explored in this brief memoir. It’s more of a recount of the cold shock that followed the attack as Leiris attempted to go about daily life.

Apart from the reprint of the original Facebook post, this memoir doesn’t stir any exceptional emotion or provide insight into the world’s response to terror-driven tragedy.

Reviewed by Angus Dalton