Just as you try to classify it, Laurent Binet ducks and sends you off on a tangential line of thought you couldn't have dreamed up. Historical, action novel? No, too deconstructed for that. The psychology of the architect of the Holocaust? No, it's about his killers. Identifying with the soul of Prague? Well, if we could ever learn the lessons of history .... Don't try, just let yourself be captivated.