Kristof is fifty, an age when many men are settling comfortably into their lives and are preparing for the forthcoming season of old age and retirement. However, something happened to him when Hungary's communist government fell and society changed. A journalist, he had long opposed the regime in private. The change to a more open society has been unexpectedly uncomfortable and unsettling for him, as it was for many others. Also, despite his own opposition to the regime, the very fact of his survival as a working journalist has earned him the derisive label of "Stalinist." It is not enough to cost him his job, but it does trouble him deeply. There is almost nothing he can do to counter the stigma of that accusation, so instead he draws in on himself and focuses on getting to know his fourteen-year-old daughter better. Eventually he recovers from his multiple shocks and begins to live his life again. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi