Reading like a long fairy tale, Florian's novel is translated from Romanian and, even with the helpful notes in the back, will have your reaching for your atlas and, if you have it, a book of maps of modern European wars (as a history minor with geeky friends, I do have one!). Or not -- you could just enjoy the story of a German dentist who follows a Dutch prince to Romania and sets up a life in Bucharest. From the description of the finance issues surrounding the building of the Romanian railroad to details of the dentist's dinners, Florian describes the Europe soon to be lost to the Great War and re-imagines a cat's shredding of the furniture as a kind of philosophic communication.