by Gene Wolfe
First published 2014
Grafton writes travel guides for a living. He needs fresh material, so he picks a small Eastern European country most people have never heard of. The trouble starts the second he crosses the border. Guards confiscate his passport. Then they arrest him for traveling without proper documentation. Officials release him to stay with a local family, but he gets detained again soon after. The bureaucratic nightmare deepens with each encounter. Corrupt officials demand bribes he cannot pay. Forms lead to more forms in an endless cycle. Grafton begins to suspect something beyond ordinary government incompetence is at work. Strange events hint at supernatural forces manipulating his situation. Yet the mystical threats seem less dangerous than the crushing weight of official corruption and red tape. Questions multiply about Grafton's true identity and purpose. Is he really just an innocent travel writer, or does he work for the CIA? The answer remains elusive as Grafton struggles against forces both mundane and otherworldly that refuse to let him go.
Genres: adventure, mystery, fantasy, alternate-history
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, mystery, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Eastern Europe
288 pages · Paperback · Tor Books