A grand novel with an explicit love story about an aging continent—Europe, barbaric tourism, the search for a Caravaggio masterpiece, and writing.
After parting with his beloved woman, writer Ilya Leonard Pfeyffer arrives at the legendary grand hotel “Europe,” which has always given guests a chance to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the old continent. He wants to recreate a romance about lost love. But something goes wrong. The new owner of the hotel—a canny Chinese man—changes “Europe” literally before his eyes.
The writer watches with disgust the crowds of tourists around him. Rude and dim-witted, they rack up kilometers along trendy routes just for another selfie, completely uninterested in art and history.
Pfeyffer’s chosen one, Klio, is the complete opposite. A specialist in art who has devoted many years to Caravaggio’s work, she is intelligent, temperamental, and desirable. Not long ago, they invented a complicated “game” and set out to find the artist’s last painting. Alas, their relationship has ended, and now thousands of kilometers separate them.
Now Europe lives in the past. Pfeyffer needles it with sharp remarks about every new change, refusing to admit that he himself is not far from the typical representatives of the continent—while, with caution, considering what the future might bring.