The Accident

At once a mystery, an espionage tale and a chronicle of doomed love, this breathless novel begins with the sudden and inexplicable death of its two protagonists, an Albanian couple meeting clandestinely in Vienna. Nameless agents of several countries begin to investigate the incident and the events that led up to it, for reasons that are often unclear even to themselves. Mingled strands of sex, romance, jealousy, violence, war and intrigue are brought together against a nighttime Europe of lonely motels and bars, where dislocated Balkan exiles meet up and drift apart while international politics roll cynically onwards in the background, the usual sorry parade of betrayal and compromise.

Infused with both a lyrical sense of loss and a kinetic anger and disgust - both sensitively communicated by John Hodgson's translation - The Accident is probably the essential mystery/thriller of the New Europe. Poised somewhere between Conrad and Le Carre, it's epic, comfortless and absolutely gripping.