A harrowing story that follows the wanderings of a boy abandoned by his parents during World War II, this classic novel, originally published in 1965, is a dark masterpiece that examines the proximity of terror and savagery to innocence and love.

When a motherless American girl living in Europe finds a medieval book and a package of letters, all addressed ominously to "My dear and unfortunate successor..." she begins to unravel a thread that leads back to her father's past, his mentor's career, and an evil hidden in the depths of history. In those few quiet moments, she unwittingly assumes a quest she will discover is her birthright: a hunt that nearly brought her father to ruin and may have...

Eastern Europe, 1956: Comrade Inspector Ferenc Kolyeszar, who is a proletariat writer in addition to his job as a state militia homicide detective, is a man on the brink. Estranged from his wife, whom he believes is cheating on him with one of his colleagues, and frustrated by writer's block, Ferenc's attention is focused on his job. But his job is growing increasingly political, something that makes him profoundly uncomfortable. When Ferenc is asked...

Prague, 1968: Peter Husak, a young student, is captured as he tries to flee the country in the wake of Russia's suppression of Czechoslovakia's fledgling freedom movement. Seven years later, a People's Militia homicide investigator with defection on his mind boards a plane for Istanbul. When it is hijacked by Armenian terrorists, the Turkish authorities try to establish contact - but the plane explodes in mid-air. No negotiation, no explanation. Why?...