The Second Notebook

Le Mans, June 1952. In the Mercedes pit lane, among the smell of oil, hot metal, and men dismantling machines, British journalist Arthur Cavendish sits down with Hermann Lang, an old friend from a vanished world. Arthur has carried a story for sixteen years. At last, he has decided to tell it.

It begins in London, in March 1936, when a man with a forgettable face offers him something that is not quite a job and not quite a threat. Arthur is already moving through the world of Grand Prix moto...