''Dazzling . . . [An] engrossing study of a vivacious personality slipping away'' THE TIMES

''Rich in detail, elusive in meaning, light in touch'' MOSCOW TIMES

In a small apartment in New York, in the sweltering mid-summer heat, a group of Russian émigrés gather around the sickbed of an artist named Alik.

Nina, his wife, is desperate for Alik to be baptised; Irina, his ex-lover, a circus acrobat turned lawyer, quietly pays the bills; elderly Maria dispenses magical herbs; and Maika, Irina''s fifteen-year-old daughter, prepares to lose the only man to make her laugh.

As the visitors fuss and reminisce over Alik, in a corner of the crowded room the television shows the uprising outside the White House in Moscow and the tanks closing in on the city . . .