Bureau of Judicial Investigation

This novel, filled with wisdom and compassion, connects the lives of individuals with the collective memory of Europe.

Iren works at an agency that investigates the crimes of German fascists. Her urgent task is to return thousands and thousands of items found in the territories of concentration camps to their owners. Behind each item lies a person's fate, and Iren, without sparing herself, shattering her personal life, attempts to engage in reconstruction. What, for example, can a faded Pierrot doll, or a medallion with the Virgin Mary, or a worn handkerchief with embroidery tell? What secrets surround them? Who are their owners, caught in the crucible of history, and who are their descendants?

This brilliantly written book with great emotional intensity shows how the past affects the present, how memory transforms history, sometimes making it a terrifying, and sometimes an inspiring chronicle of human destinies.