Brief Plot Summary

The book starts off with Boualem Yekker, a book store owner, talking about how the world as we once knew it has now ended and a whole new world has begun.

The story is told by Boualem Yekker, it a serious of memories that he has. It starts off with him telling about the actual "last summer of reason," it was when he and his family went out on a camping trip.
Yekker ends up killing his son because he can hardly control himself anymore with his thoughts. The main plot of the book is Boualem telling about how corrupt the new world is. How many things have changed such as art being destroyed, and seperating male and female. Females are greatly looked down upon by society.
If anything is ever questioned, it means you are questioning God, and you get looked down upon as well. Even spare tires are outlawed because if God wanted your car to break down there must be a reason for it.
Boualem does not agree with anything that is going on and people from all ages despise him. He gets stoned by little children even. Eventually he gets a letter telling him that he is being kicked out of the society, and his book store shuts down. The book ends with Boualem wonder if anything will ever go back to normal.