December 1950.
Two brothers barely out of adolescence attempt to flee Soviet Romania, which has already stolen their parents from them. They are arrested, imprisoned, and quickly separated.
December 1989.
As the Romanian people have just ousted and executed their Conducator, Horatio, a refugee in Brittany for over 35 years, jumps in his car and races toward Bucharest, hoping to find some trace of his younger brother. Throughout his journey across Europe, memories come flooding back—from captivity to solidarity, from torture to rebuilding. What happened to his brother all this time? What is left of him?
A masterful, sensitive, and powerful novel that examines the bond between brothers and explores the effects of tyranny on the individual and their relationship to the world, when the political project of the “new man” is built on dehumanization.
