For the first time in Russian — the latest novel by the famous John Maxwell Kutsee, twice winner of the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature, "the last of our great writers" (Nation), the famous author of such novels as "Dishonor" and "Waiting for the Barbarians", as well as the autobiographical trilogy "Scenes from the life of a provincial". Beatrice is a youthful-graceful lady from Barcelona, a mother of two children, the wife of a banker, an active participant in the Concert Circle of Music lovers. One day, the Concert Circle invites the Polish pianist Witold to perform in Barcelona, whose last name has so many letters "h" that no one can pronounce it and everyone just calls him a Pole. He is "a well-known interpreter of Chopin, however, quite peculiar: his Chopin is not at all romantic, on the contrary, he is strict, Chopin is like the heir of Bach." At first, Witold doesn't make much impression on Beatrice, but she does on him. But how do you convey your true feelings in a language that is not your native language?..