Very quickly I will state that I was given this book by a professor at the University of West Florida and, having not heard anything about it, it sat on a shelf for five months. Then I decided to give it a chance out of boredom more than anything else...and suddenly found that I could not put it down.A contemporary classic. Rich imagery, captivating characters, a suspenseful storyline and flowing prose (the translation seems to be much better here than other German-English texts I have read - kudos to John E. Woods) make this a must read.