Paul, a young Frenchman, meets Clara in the Bavarian village of Kehlstein during the 1960s. He is the son of a Resistance fighter, murdered in mysterious circumstances; she, the daughter of a doctor who had served in the Wehrmacht. Both were born at a time when Europe was at last at peace, yet they are both victims of history, for each of them bears the weight of pain and memory, and each is an indirect witness to the crimes and ravages of war. In a novel that spans the political events of the second half of the twentieth century, Paul s and Clara s paths are to cross and entwine in unexpected ways over the years. Paul becomes a sculptor, she a photographer, but in their work as in their lives neither can escape the truth of Shakespeare s observation that the evil that men do lives after them . Pierre Peju caught the attention of many British readers with his poignant novel The Girl from the Chartreuse. The broader themes and unforgettable characters in his latest, prize-winning work are further confirmation of the talent of one of Europe s finest living writers.