An amazing, and unsettling, book. The story alternates between the past and present. The present is the story of a Bosnian writer from Sarajevo, living in Chicago. He's researching the murder of a Jewish immigrant to Chicago, Lazarus Averbuch, that occurred in 1908. The story moves between that of Lazarus, and that of the modern-day writer, Brik.[return][return]The story of Lazarus reminded me, somewhat, of Doctorow's "Ragtime". You've got widespread prejudice, oppression, poverty, and police brutality. I adored the fierce, and indomitable Olga. She's the older sister of the young, murdered Lazarus, and she doesn't turn a hair.[return][return]The present-day story is disturbing, perhaps, because I start out liking the narrator, by default. I was initially reminded of Joseph O'Neill's novel, Netherland, where the narrator is also a well educated immigrant to America; however, in this book the narrator is darker, angrier. Of course, being a highly paid financial analyst and coming from Holland is a much sunnier situation than being from Sarajevo and more-or-less unemployed. As the story progresses, the narrator, Brik, reveals more and more of his anger and shortcomings. I'm generally fond of unreliable narrators, so I liked that, even as I found him disturbing. The portrait that the book paints of central Europe is fascinating.