Focusing on a world that vanished in 1938, this is a detailed memoir of Central European life which offers insights into influences that have contributed to recent national turmoil. It centres on the Bukovina - at one time an Austro-Hungarian province, then a part of Romania, and later absorbed into the Ukraine - and describes the family and household that shaped the author's childhood. Gregor von Rezzori's other books include Memoirs of an Anti-Semite and The Death of My Brother Abel.