itty Crozier’s chance London encounter with Romanian refugee drifter Virgil Florescu blossoms into an improbable but perfectly plausible love affair. Virgil’s marred past, however, circumvents their future. This is a time-machine novel about longing and unfulfilled hopes. Bailey has the uncanny gift of reaching over his shoulder and backward into an Eastern Europe of commanding ghosts. A deeply ambitious and touching book whose vivid Virgil is transcendent.

K