The Lost Civ­i­liza­tion of Suolu­cidir (ridicu­lous spelled back­wards), is the sto­ry of an imag­i­nary city-state in east­ern Iran, and in the course of the book three dif­fer­ent arche­o­log­i­cal expe­di­tions at three dif­fer­ent points in his­to­ry will look for Suolu­cidir. The first, a British expe­di­tion is launched on the eve of World War I, next the invent­ed Fran­co-Sovi­et Friend­ship Dig whose mem­bers, on eve of World War II, are des­per­ate to get out of France, and the present by a New York arche­ol­o­gist pok­ing into the hornet’s nest that is Iran just after the Shah went into exile. The groups are search­ing for trea­sure, oil, evi­dence of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Peo­ple dis­ap­pear, relics are stolen. Lost Civ­i­liza­tion has been com­pared to Indi­ana Jones meets Umber­to Eco with a bit of Etgar Keret thrown in as well. 

To quote the Publisher’s Week­ly review: ​“Daitch’s fan­tas­ti­cal­ly fun nov­el is brainy, escapist fic­tion at its best. The nov­el is like a Scheherazade tale, nev­er quite giv­ing the read­er time or rea­son to pause.”