First published 2003
Alexander Lescziak practices psychology on Manhattan's Upper West Side, maintaining careful distance from his Polish parents' wartime past. His orderly existence crumbles when a patient arrives claiming to be his half-brother, born from an affair between Lescziak's Jewish mother and a German prisoner of war. This revelation forces Lescziak to confront the fractures already spreading through his world. His marriage dissolves while his wife grows closer to his best friend. Nella, a young patient who has become his lover, vanishes after attempting suicide. Unable to bear these collapsing realities, Lescziak retreats into vivid fantasies about his mother's forbidden romance. In his imagination, the wartime affair unfolds across England's Lake District, where passion bloomed between enemies during the war's darkest hours. As past and present collide, Lescziak must face how deeply buried history shapes current pain.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, adult-fiction, psychological-thriller, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Manhattan, Upper West Side, England, Lake District
Period: World War II
352 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company
Content warnings: war