The chapter offers a reading of the novel Clash of Civilization by the Algerian diaspora writer Amara Lakhous. Set in Rome, the original cosmopolis and the mythical “promised land” that would eternally welcome exiles and outcasts, the narrative teases out the representation of the West/Rome as a space of vicarious empathy, within which the outcast and traumatized non-Westerner resolves his griefs and works through his trauma. In lieu of this idealized model, the West is portrayed as an extension of the South. Through the prism of memory, the traumatic “past” of Algeria is re-ignited, affecting the “present” of the West/Rome and defying closure or resolution. The obscure figure of the migrant, therefore, can be read as a manifestation of the ghost, in the Derridean sense, whose haunting presence imbricates past, present, and future, and troubles any neat categorizations within the guest/host nexus. In view of this, the host fails its promises of hospitality and even turns into a hostage, forced to live by the guest’s rules and the weight of his memories.