A visionary thriller of future espionage, broken borders, people smuggling, betrayal and an impossible secret The Guardian called, “a spellbinding novel of intrigue and paranoia.” Europe as we know it is gone. Devastated by a flu pandemic and crippled by economic collapse, the continent has fractured into countless tiny nations, a fragile web of shifting alliances seething with espionage and strange new technologies. In a small restaurant in Krakow, chef Rudi is drawn into a new career with Les Coureurs des Bois, a shadowy organisation that will move anything across any state line – for a price. Soon, Rudi is in a world of high-risk smuggling operations, where kidnappings and double-crosses are as natural as a map that constantly redraws itself.