A combined edition of: March Violets , The Pale Criminal , and, A German Requiem .

Viktor, with only his pet penguin for company, composes obituaries for the local newspaper, even though their subjects cling to life. When he sees his work in print for the first time, his pride turns to terror. He and Misha are drawn into a trap from which there appears to be no escape.

After shooting his brother's killer, young Gjorg is entitled to thirty days' grace - not enough to see out the month of April. Then a visiting honeymoon couple cross the path of the fugitive. The bride's heart goes out to Gjorg, and even these 'civilised' strangers from the city risk becoming embroiled in the fatal mechanism of vendetta.

Twenty years after the end of the Second World War, an Italian general is despatched to Albania to recover his country's dead. Once there he meets a German general who is engaged upon an identical mission, and their conversations brings out into the open the extent of their horror and guilt, newly exacerbated by their present task.

Described as one of the half dozen truly great novels of the twentieth century.

A story of how the unbelievable came true, this book is about Ditie, a hotel waiter who rises to become a millionaire and then loses it all again against the backdrop of events in Prague from the German invasion to the victory of Communism.