' Set at a time of lengthening shadows this is a novel about the sparks that illuminate the dark of wisdom compassion defiance & courage It is wry piercing & also fittingly radiant' Daily Mail From Robert Seethaler the author of the Man Booker International shortlisted A Whole Life comes a deeply moving story of ordinary lives profoundly affected by the Third Reich in the tradition of novels such as Fred Uhlman's classic Reunion Bernhard Schlink's The Reader & Rachel Seiffert's The Dark Room When seventeen-year-old Franz exchanges his home in the idyllic beauty of the Austrian lake district for the bustle of Vienna his homesickness quickly dissolves amidst the thrum of the city In his role as apprentice to the elderly tobacconist Otto Trsnyek he will soon be supplying the great & good of Vienna with their newspapers & cigarettes Among the regulars is a Professor Freud whose predilection for cigars & occasional willingness to dispense romantic advice will forge a bond between him & young Franz It is 1937 In a matter of months Germany will annex Austria & the storm that has been threatening to engulf the little tobacconist will descend leaving the lives of Franz Otto & Professor Freud irredeemably changed