Ambassador of the Dead

A harrowing tale of ambitions gone awry, and an unflinching meditation on exile and assimilation and the cost of love.

One Sunday morning, Nick Blud, a successful Boston physician, is home in bed when he receives a phone call from Adriana Kruk, the mother of a boyhood friend. The beautiful Adriana, who once vacationed at her family's luxurious summer home on the Black Sea, now lives in a run-down apartment in New Jersey. Abandoned by her husband and estranged from her sons, she summons Nick back to his old neighborhood, where something unspeakable has happened--exactly what, no one is willing to say.Askold Melnyczuk's publications include novels, essays, poems, memoir, and translations. Among his works are the novels What Is Told, Ambassador of the Dead, House of Widows, and Excerpt from Smedley's Secret Guide to World Literature.