LET ME TELL YOU the story of my friend, Anton Zwiebel.

You will soon realize that any story about Anton Zwiebel is also a story about me, Gustav Perle. In fact, I can’t imagine how I could set down any account of Anton Zwiebel’s life that didn’t include me. I am at the heart of Anton Zwiebel’s life and he is at the heart of mine.

This was an average dawn in the early summer of 1948, the year I got to be eighteen. “Eat your fishcake, Dougie,” said Lou. They were barracuda fishcakes. Awful. They tasted like it was the fish’s