The Figure in the Distance

This book is a beautiful study of the interplay between past and present. The narrator of the novel is a lifelong traveller--Cambridge, Budapest, New York, Tel Aviv, The Hague, and Zurich are all cities he has lived in. But wherever he stays, the impressions he gets and the people he sees remind him of figures from long ago: a lost friend, a former lover, and above all, his father. He has a past, but the present eludes him, and he moves about the world as if he is a ghost, his intrusive memories ensuring that he is never completely alone and yet never completely happy. The writing is spare and elegant, and this enchanting novel will not be easily forgotten.