"History follows a trail of sputtering desire, often calling upon the delusions of lovers to generate the sparks. If it weren't for us, the world would suffer from a dismal lack of stories."
In this brutally candid memoir, the first non-French winner of the prestigious Prix de Flore, writer, translator, and journalist Bruce Benderson recounts his unrequited love for an impoverished Romanian who he meets while on a journalism assignment in Eastern Europe.
Rather than retreat, Benderson absorbs everything he can about Romania, its culture and its history and discovers a mirror in it for his own turmoil: the wile affairs of its last king, Carol II.
Free of bitterness, nastiness, or any desire to protect himself, he is sustained throughout by little white codeine pills, a poetic self-awareness, a sense of humour, and an unwavering belief in the perfect romance, even as wild dogs chase him down Romanian streets.
