This book is about the life of Iv�n Kov�cs and begins with a tribute to Budapest seen through the eyes of a six-year-old child. Hungary is in the grip of Soviet domination and in October 1956 the people revolt against foreign tyranny. The child and his parents flee the country and eventually settle in Switzerland. Here begins the lifelong struggle to overcome alienation that will pursue the child into his old age, because after a few short years he is to be uprooted again as the family immigrates to South Africa. Years of psychological anguish follow, but his resilience and a sense of destiny gradually bring about the fulfilment of his ambitions. He starts off as a poet, works as a journalist, translates poems from Hungarian into English, and finally becomes the narrator of his own turbulent history.