Distant, silent, often drunk, Walter Urban is a difficult man to have as a father. But his son--the narrator of this slim, harrowing novel--is curious about Walter's experiences during World War II, and so makes him a present of a blank notebook in which to write down his memories. Walter dies, however, leaving nothing but the barest skeleton of a story on those pages, leading his son to fill in the gaps himself, rightly or wrongly, with what he can...