A precocious new wunderkind, Grunberg first published this novel in the Netherlands when he was only 22 years old, and it immediately garnered comparisons to Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus. The comparison is deserved. Grunberg displays flashes of Roth's talent and wit, updated for a '90s audience. Our hero is a disenfranchised young slacker, prowling the seamy and sleazy back alleys of Amsterdam's red-light district, finding redemption in his comic take on life's saddest fringes.