In May 1937, a man in his early thirties waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House. Any celebrity he has known in the previous decade is of no use to him now. Few who are taken to the Big House ever return.

Thus begins Julian Barnes's first novel since his Booker-winning "The Sense of an Ending." It is a story about the collision of art and power, about human compromise, human cowardice, and human courage. This work showcases the talent of a true master.