Norman Corinth, an American dentist, comes for a conference in an East German city. He is not a random American in a random city: they are connected. The city no longer exists. Corinth was in the war. He barely exists. His attempts to find the thread of a story he doesn't know form the content of this novel, whose background is formed by one of the strangest countries that ever existed in world history. But for Corinth, this present reality has less reality than the past he is searching for. 'I am a Greek who fell under Agamemnon, and who still lives,' he says to the 'East German' Hella, with whom he has a brief affair. Through this, and through his encounter with the 'West German' Schneiderhahn, the drama of his ruined life takes shape over two days.
Norman Corinth, an American dentist, comes for a conference in an East German city. He is not a random American in a random city: they are connected. The city no longer exists. Corinth was in the war. He barely exists. His attempts to find the thread of a story he doesn't know form the content of this novel, whose background is formed by one of the strangest countries that ever existed in world history. But for Corinth, this present reality has less reality than the past he is searching for. 'I am a Greek who fell under Agamemnon, and who still lives,' he says to the 'East German' Hella, with whom he has a brief affair. Through this, and through his encounter with the 'West German' Schneiderhahn, the drama of his ruined life takes shape over two days.