The Gabriel Club (Import)

I liked it, but I'm not sure if everyone would. It's like amurder mystery...[T]here's some wonderful, almost poetic use oflanguage and images, and some of the most surreal conversations I'verun across in novels.

I liked it. It's about four Eastern European dissidents after the fall of Communism, and how they cope with the new conditions. There's a mystery element, since one of their number has disappeared, some time-shifting and ambiguity, allusions to Kafka, and lots of wordplay and imagery. In paticular, there's the symbol of the black seagulls that keep dying (some deliberately) all the way through the story. The woman Immanuelle is a great character, I wished more of the book was devoted to her.