A searing, humorous, satirical and soul searching novel, almost picaresque, about a young waiter in pre-war and wartime Czechoslovakia. As we follow him from the failures to the successes, the joys and despairs of his life and his country's, we cannot but empathise with him. His marriage to a German girl does not bring him any favours from his wife's Nazi colleagues, while it brings down fierce opprobrium on his head as a collaborator from the Czechs.