This moving story recounts a love affair between Joseph Kruger, a one-time famous playwright-novelist and Holocaust survivor and Kitty, the sheltered daughter of assimilated Jewish parents. They meet in a New York City second-hand bookstore, and at first a curious Kitty becomes consumed with this charismatic, troubled, larger-than-life figure, who is charming and brilliant but also a survivor: out for himself. She listens to his horrifying wartime stories, the tales of his many lovers, his literary successes and his travels after the war.
Joseph and Kitty share a desperate desire, his appetite is insatiable for food as it is for sex. He is a born storyteller, and transports the reader to another time so that we can share, with Kitty, his lifetime of experience. However, holed up in his dark hotel apartment, Joseph gives Kitty cause to wonder - is he a victim or a monster?
The story is narrated through Kitty's eyes years later, as she makes her way to Joseph's funeral long after their love affair has run its course.
