The Apartment

A man walks across an old European capital. Heavy snow falls. He has come here from far away, hoping to forget. Instead, he remembers: home, war, lost friends. Complicity. In the company of a new friend and alive to the new experiences of the city, he moves through the snow and his complicated history in search of an apartment.

Written in a rather introverted style, this book relies on atmosphere rather than action. At times the result is a trance-like reading experience. An American who was in the military in Iraq wanders around seemingly aimlessly in a European city of which the name is not revealed - nor the country in which it is situated. The American meets a local girl (who happens to be of Dutch descent) who shows him around some local places. He decides to stay on and rents an apartment. He has no plans for the future and comes across as rather apathetic. The book has an open ending.