Robert Prowe

Robert Prowe is the novel’s protagonist. He is originally from England and is in his late thirties. He used to work in an advertising agency but now is a fiction writer. He has one published book and is struggling to write a second. He lives in Berlin with his wife and two young daughters. Lately, he has been bored and frustrated with his everyday life. One day, he encounters Patrick Unsworth, another Englishman living in Berlin. Patrick is a writer who has made his career ghostwriting people’s memoirs. Patrick claims that he was helping to ghostwrite the memoir of an exiled Russian oligarch who was then assassinated. Patrick also claims to be in hiding from whoever killed the oligarch.

Robert thinks that Patrick is lying or delusional, but he listens to Patrick’s story, intending to appropriate it for fiction writing material. Patrick eventually learns...