A Punch Buggy Book According to the travelling doctor Abd al-Latif, in the year 1201, the old, the young and the fat were devoured by fellow Egyptians in a cannibalistic hunt that lasted a year and annihilated entire communities. The causes remain unknown. The forces of evil unleashed by this horrible feast remain unknown. The Jericho Bone tells the Good Doctor's tale and suggests answers to the unanswerable through the eyes of an ancient tribal general, a bloody-handed envoy of the Caliph, a fisherman, four doctors, a bookseller, a donkey boy, a slave girl sold for her flesh rather than her companionship, a ruthless adventurer, a loquacious midwife, a wicked noblewoman, and a wet nurse attempting to save the last baby in Cairo from those who would dine upon the innocent.