In the thirty-second installment of Donna Leon’s bestselling series,a connection to Guido Brunetti’s own youthful past helps solve a mysterious murder On a cold November eveningGuido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrivesalerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice’s canals. The body is soon foundand Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Because no official record of the man’s presence in Venice existsBrunetti is forced to use the city’s far richer sources of information: gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim. Curiouslyhe had been living in a small house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professorin which Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim’s interest in Buddhismthe revolutionary Tamil Tigersand the last crop of Italian political terroristsactive in the 1980s. As the investigation expandsBrunettiVianelloCommissario Griffoniand Signora Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle–random information about real estate and land usebooksuniversity friendships–that appear to have little in commonuntil Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student dayscausing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youthon Italian politics and historyand on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.