Still bearing scars from the gulag, a freed POW traverses Russia to arrive at the Polish town of Lodz. In its massive Hotel Savoy, he meets a surreal cast of characters, each eagerly awaiting the return from America of a rich man named Bloomfield. Like Europe itself in 1932, the hotel is the stage upon which characters follow fate to its tragic destination.

Author Biography: Joseph Roth (1894-1939) is also the author of the novels The Radetzky March, The Emperor's Tomb, Tarabas, Job, Confession of a Murderer, Flight Without End, The Silent Prophet, and The Spider's Web/Zipper and His Father (all available from Overlook), and Right and Left (forthcoming).