From the moment he meets Julia, Christiaan Dudok is dangerously close to love. But their first date is interrupted by S.A. Brownshirts storming into the cafe. It is 1937, and Germany is heading for war and fanaticism. Chris, a Dutchman, is both transfixed and appalled by the effect of Hitler's manic oratory on the people of Lubeck.

The independence and freedom of thought that Chris finds so attractive in Julia leads her to emphatically reject the Nazi regime, and before long her courageous stance brings them both to the Gestapo's attention. Soon Chris is forced to make an impossible choice, the outcome of which he can only regret.

"An affecting study of regret . . . A compelling account of how conflicts tear apart lives" - Tribune

"What is most striking in this novel is de Kat's use of the Dutchman's slightly distanced perspective to pinpoint what was most unsettling about this time: through him we register the terrible energy and torpor of a moment when it seems impossible for ordinary Germans to stop the march or step out of line, and yet unconscionable for them not to try" - Times Literary Supplement

"''A sequence of memories beautifully linked together by the images drifting through the mind of a man waiting to die' Guardian." - Guardian

"'De Kat's ambition of theme is served by astonishing tautness of construction and spareness of language' Independent." - Independent

"'Emotionally shattering, it is also distinguished by logical intricacy of art and precision of detail' Paul Binding, T.L.S. Books of the Year." - Paul Binding

"'A monumental little book' Roger Cox, Scotsman." - Scotsman