THIS IS THE story of George, who thinks art can change the world. To do this, he tells a tale of conflict where different visions of life struggle to survive and fundamentalists of Islam show that they have more in common with the fundamentalists of the West than with their co-religionists.

I’ve known George Gittoes a long time. I think we were sixteen when we first met at Kingsgrove North High, an over-large school at the start of Sydney’s south-west sprawl. I remember the newly arrived George telling the headmaster he was an atheist so he could get out of scripture classes.