A group of American expats en route to adventure, inspiration, or perhaps even history in the making in exotic Prague, somehow get side-tracked and settle instead for the enigmatic and enlightening city of Budapest.
Arriving in Hungary's capital to pursue his elusive brother, journalist John Price finds himself drawn into the din of Budapest's nightclubs, a romance with a secretive young diplomat, the table of an elderly cocktail pianist, and the moody company of a young man obsessed with nostalgia, all in a bid to forget the larger questions that arise in a city still pocked with bullet holes from war and crushed rebellion.
With humour, intelligence and masterly prose, Phillips captures the characters of his contemporaries and brilliantly renders the Hungary of the past.
