From behind the closed door, the man shouts, ''Be on your way - you have no business here!''

''Open up, I am the messenger of Death''.

As spring arrives in the Albanian mountain town of B, some strange things are emerging in the thaw. Bank robbers strike the National Bank. Old terrors are dredged up from the shipwreck of history. And ultra-explosive state secrets are threatening to flood the entire nation. Mark, an artist, finds the peaceful rhythms of his life turned upside down by ancient love and modern barbarism and by the particular brutality of a country surprised and divided by its new freedom.

‘One of the many pleasures of Mr Kadare's writing is his supremely light touch’ New York Times