The provincial town of Guldenberg is still reeling from the effects of World War II when a flood of German refugees arrives from the east, Bernhard Haber's family among them. Life is hard enough - Bernhard's father has lost an arm and cannot ply his trade as a carpenter. But added to this injury comes an accumulation of insults, as the seemingly upright town, seething with petty resentment, turns hostile toward the newcomers. After a string of mysterious losses - from the killing of the boy's dog to the unexplained death of his father - Bernhard is set on exacting revenge.<BR>Christoph Hein's novel tells Bernhard Haber's story across nearly fifty years, chronicling his remarkable rise from victimized outsider to Guldenberg's most prominent burgher. Recounted in the voices of five people who had some part in Haber's life - a schoolmate, a girlfriend, a sister-in-law, an accomplice in smuggling people to the West, and a local business associate - a collective portrait emerges of a whole town roiled by political turmoil, of a society where decency is always stained with cynicism.<BR>For Bernhard, though, what began as a geographic dislocation evolves into a personal quest: the thirst for vengeance yields to the deeper need for a home, and settling down proves more important than settling grudges. As the socialist state gives way to reunification and the capitalism of the 1990s, Hein's multivoiced narration charts the transformation not just of one man but of an entire nation struggling to leave history behind and claim a home.