Feliks Zhukovski is a Pole in Paris, a man out of place and out of his own time - a man who chose politics over people and ideas over love. His life's work is a travel guide to the old Eastern bloc; his personal life a series of failures. Unfortunately for Feliks, it's 1991. Communism has collapsed, East Germany isn't the economic miracle he wants it to be, and at 61, his travel-writing days are numbered. Feliks makes the decision to sell his guide to an American firm, and sets in motion a life-changing chain of events. He will meet a brother he hasn't seen in fifty years, learn the horrifying truth about the mother he thought abandoned him, and have a second chance with a long-lost love. But after fifty years of misunderstandings and delusions, can he start his life afresh? The novel casts an unflinching gaze on the human cost of a century of wars, in a voice that never loses its humour or uplifting power.