“You were right to tell me that in life it is not the future which counts, but the past.”

Meet Guy Roland, an amnesiac detective. The story opens in 1965, Roland's employer has decided to retire and close the detective agency where Guy has worked for the past eight years. Left with no vocation, our protagonist decides to start his own case: a search for his own past. We are jostled and pulled into several characters, who he somehow or other, presumes to be connected to his case. Going past dead ends, and false memories our man Roland, after interview upon interview, finally appears to have regained some of that lost memory.



But to fill in the gaps in his mind, he needs to meet a certain Freddie. But where is Freddie? Is he still alive? Be prepared for that involves smugglers, swindlers and lost faces in the race of time.

As usual, Modiano makes memory his most vital weapon in writing, and the protagonist is left clutching at every straw to find some semblance to his identity. Keep reading to find a place lost back in time.