Perfect Witness

“Why shouldn’t those Baltic

provinces stew in their own

juice for a while?” says Stalin, not

long before dying in offi ce. The

President of the Baltic Peoples

Republic, Marshal Jurgis Tievas,

after an ill-fated visit to socialist

Britain, returns to Gdainys to fi nd

himself besieged by domestic

enemies. Nor is he comforted

by being an impostor, the

double of the Marshal who was

inadvertently killed in Britain.

Seven of his entourage know his

secret. Now his beloved niece

Valija invites two of their British

friends, Elizabeth Templeton and

Michael Brenan, to stay—who

may or may not know the secret.