Like many Poles, Lukasz has been working in the Netherlands and Germany for years. He regularly comes home or sends messages. Until Janina suddenly stops hearing from her father. When a stranger gets in touch and says he has Lukasz’s coat, Janina decides to go to Germany. A whirlwind search ensues. A novel that reads like a detective story, but without a murder or a culprit. A reconstruction of a life through the eyes of everyone who crossed paths with Lukasz.

 

Jaap Robben has written a contemporary European epic spanning the length of a long winter. It is about a continent as a blended family, where language and background determine who is seen and who remains invisible. But what traces does a person leave behind? Where do we find one another? The invisible layer of migrant workers who keep our society running is finally given a face and a voice, in all its Babylonian multilingualism.