From the author of UNTRACEABLE, a novel about history both personal and political and the mysteries of the past. THE GOODE FRITZ tells the story of a young Russian named Kirill, the sole survivor of a once numerous clan of German origin, who delves relentlessly into the unresolved past. His ancestor, Balthasar Schwerdt, migrated to the Russian Empire in the early 1800s, bringing with him the practice of alternative medicine and becoming captive to an erratic nobleman who supplied entertainers for Catherine the Great. Kirill's investigation takes us through centuries of turmoil during which none of the German's nine children or their descendants can escape their adoptive country's cruel fate. Intent on uncovering buried mysteries, Kirill searches archives and cemeteries across Europe, while pressing witnesses for keys to understanding. "Outstanding ... Lebedev muses in Tolstoyan fashion about 'the energy flow of history', by which the actions of distant ancestors can fix the destinies of people hundreds of years later. Antonina W. Bouis has once again delivered a translation of determined, adamantine beauty" WALL STREET JOURNAL