Ralph Krass - that's the name of a lavishly generous businessman who consumes people with cannibalistic appetites. Is he infinitely rich or just an impostor, coldly calculating, or does he dream unrestrainedly? A man who never has time and sees other people only as puppets. When Lidewine enters his circle in Naples - just the assistant of a magician, a young adventurer - and she resists him, he falls into the trap of offering her an unusual pact. > is an atmospheric, visually powerful novel about what the passing of time does to people, about love, loss and magical rediscovery. Biography Martin Mosebach, born in 1951 in Frankfurt am Main, lives there as a writer after studying law. Numerous book publications. Awards: 1980 Advancement Prize of the Jürgen Ponto Foundation, 1999 Heimito von Doderer Prize and 2002 Heinrich von Kleist Peis, 2006 Grand Literature Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, 2007 Georg Büchner Prize.