When Frederick wakes up in his hospital bed after a traumatic car crash there is a disturbing rift in his memory. He is haunted by images of a dark-haired woman with intense eyes and by the knowledge that somehow this woman holds the key to his missing past. Will solving the puzzle offer him peace at last, or will it simply stir up a pain that can never fully heal?

An act of thoughtless racism causes ripples across generations; an overheard conversation points the way to new love; a young boy's struggle to support his family offers the perfect solution for lonely soldiers' wives.

These are stories of struggle and enlightenment, and of the perseverance of human compassion even in the cruelty of war. They turn an irreverent humour on the dark side of communism and, as in the case of Frederick, they show us the moving and indelible ways in which the past will for ever act upon the present.




Arthur Friedberg is Dutch, of Polish descent. Born in the north-east of Poland, in 1941 he was deported to Siberia together with his parents, where he spent five years, returning to Poland in 1946. After a temporary democratisation of the country, at the end of 1956, still a student, Friedberg became involved in the growing movement of famous students' theatres and film clubs. He is a chemist by profession (PhD, MSc, Eng) and worked for sixteen years as a scientist at technical universities across Poland and Sweden, and afterwards for many years in industry in the Netherlands and France. Aside from his professional engagements, he continued his artistic activities throughout the 1960s. He emigrated from Poland in 1969 and is now retired and living in the Netherlands. He is also the author of a novel, A Long-postponed Visit, published in 2005 by Athena Press.