A story based on motifs from Telemachus’ journey in search of his father, and – just as in Homer’s tale – there are plenty of encounters with mythical figures, presenting analogies with the contemporary mythology of mass culture and politics.

It is the mid-20^th century in Poland. The hero, Adam, lives with his mother, who is tormented by functionaries of the communist state security service. Adam’s father had defended Albion as a pilot during WW2, and hasn’t been heard from since. Nobody knows whether he stayed in England, or returned home and gone into hiding to avoid persecution.

Through a visit to the cinema to see Godard’s “Contempt”, Adam finds himself in Brigitte Bardot’s boudoir, and from there in a Hotel inhabited by characters from both his real and interior lives. Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando co-exist with his schoolmates; Cézanne and Simon Templar with UB agents; The Beatles and Picasso with Adam’s sadistic music teacher… This Hotel, built from imagination and dreams, has endless rooms, corridors and doors, some of them leading to London, to Venice and even to Siberia. There are underground rivers and canals, a Secret Garden and a Library where Adam can read his own thoughts from literally moments earlier. The novel records a complex, ironically fragmented consciousness of that era, between the marvellous and unrealisable desire for Another Life, and a paltry, humiliating everyday existence.