It is 1989, and a young literature student named Ed travels to the Baltic island of Hiddensee, a notorious destination for hippies, idealists, and those at odds with the East German state.

On Hiddensee, Ed joins the community of seasonal workers, led by the charismatic, enigmatic Kruso. At night, they secretly help the refugees who have come to the island seeking passage to the West. But Kruso is preoccupied by another kind of freedom - freedom of the mind.

As the wave of history washes over the German Democratic Republic, the friends' grip on reality loosens and life on the island will never be the same.

'The poetic language and careful expression to the prose in Kruso make for an arresting read too, slightly odd and off-beat, but quite compelling. It's also a novel of big themes - freedom (personal and political), longing (in all its gradations), and mourning, in particular - and the narrative's general sense of drift, with these bobbling up constantly but never overwhelming the story, is particularly well done. A fine, big novel.'