The Finding: Itihad

by Ken Philips

What would you do if as you write a story, the worst by-products of your imagination, fears and anxiety turned into reality? Ken Rochat meets Ken Philips as the sequel of The Volatility Smirk unfolds amidst a global pandemic and the specter of WWIII.I started to write The Finding on February 2nd, 2020; the same day I released The Volatility Smirk. Less than a month later, on the back of the Covid-19 emergency, stock market’s volatility had already surged above the high recorded in October 2008 at the time of Lehman’s bankruptcy. For the sequel, I had originally picked the title of Itihad with The Union as subtitle –Itihad meaning union in Arabic– and meant to introduce the theme of inter-faith dialogue. The fictional story revolves around commodities and cryptocurrencies. As in Volatility, earthquakes also play a central role. If a messiah were to be born in our days, what would he look like and what would the narrative surrounding him be? Who are the people behind cryptocurrencies in Itihad? Some kind of religious sect? Itihad starts where we left Ken Rochat, the protagonist of Volatility. Not satisfied with having got out of the previous year’s black swan unscathed, he ventures into oil futures trading. That will lead him to Dubai where he encounters a whiz-kid with extraordinary philosophical, technical and artistic skills, not before having met with a nerdy character surprisingly well versed in cryptocurrencies. Are these two young men more than they purport to be?The above per se would be enough material for a book, had it not been for the fact that as I went through the editing, reality got stranger than fiction as the Covid-19 emergency broke out and I found myself locked down in the house north of Milan where I spent five years of my youth before moving to Japan.I had been looking at the geopolitical scenario out of my posting in Dubai till I relocated to Milan, and had frequently likened the decade following the Global Financial Crisis to the one after the 1929 Wall Street Crash that eventually led to WWII even before far more famous figures than me such as Ray Dalio of Bridgewater to quote one, had pointed that out. Was the World at risk of annihilation in March 2020 more than we realized? Like it was during Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962? The Finding is two, in fact one could even say it’s three books in one. Whilst Ken Rochat’s journey unfolds within Itihad, another story flashes back and forth between realty and fiction as the writer exchanges views with several characters across the world about what is happening at both ends during the lockdown, touching upon issues ranging from an eschatological interpretation of these momentous events, and what may be hidden behind the smoke blanket of a mysterious virus.

425 pages, Paperback

Published July 6, 2020