In this book the author tells the story of a young man whose brief encounter with a wayward girl forces him to question the assumptions upon which his own comfortable life is based. For Lydia has seen tragedy. The Russian Revolution displaced her family, left her homeless, fatherless. And for reasons that elude Charley, Lydia pines for a man half a world away, a dope dealer and murderer whose sins Lydia seeks to absolve through her own self-destruction. Haunting, erotic, deeply affecting, this book explores two souls capsized by compassion - and the confusion that engulfed a generation in the days bewtween the world wars.
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