Six generations of the Sephardi Mani family are chronicled in this profound and passionate Mediterranean epic, which moves backwards from the 1980s to the mid-nineteenth century. The story comprises of five conversations, each centering on the fate of a different member of the Mani family, and in each the responses of one person are absent. Mr. Mani is surprisingly humorous, full of extraordinary historical perspectives, and deeply wise and compassionate. It is an imaginative tour-de-force.