A powerful and moving novel about the ravages war and the need to tell the truth, even in the face of adversity.
After the close of a great war, a mysterious stranger arrives in a small European village. He is an artist and he begins sketching the villagers, showing the painful reality of the crimes and betrayals the war left in its wake. Consumed by distrust, the villagers conspire and murder him. The authorities commission Brodeck, a timid, low-level bureaucrat, to write a report that essentially whitewashes the incident. Brodeck agrees to write the official account, but he simultaneously sets down his version of the incident in a parallel narrative, which interweaves his own horrific experiences as a prisoner of war, the truth about the stranger’s disappearance, and the dark secrets the villagers have fought fiercely to keep hidden.
- ISBN10 0385527241
- ISBN13 9780385527248
- Publish Date 30 June 2009 (first published 23 June 2009)
- Publish Status Remaindered
- Out of Print 29 December 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Nan A. Talese
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 313
- Language English