A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Ida Hattemer-Higgins was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts. She studied German and Chinese literature in New York, then left the United States in 2001. In the time since, she has lived in j.a.pan, India, and Sweden and for the past seven years has been a student of literature in Berlin, where she has also worked as a walking-tour guide and translator. She now divides her time between Berlin and Moscow. This is her first novel.