Últimos días en la vieja Europa

In 1979, the author of this book undertook a series of trips that would take him through the heart of Europe. From Trieste to Prague and from Vienna to Warsaw, Bassett would cross his path with that of rundown aristocrats, gangsters as charming as they were dangerous, wayward diplomats and glamorous spies. Lives lived on the edge of the novel that would serve as a counterpoint to understand the austere reality of the Iron Curtain. First as a professional musician and then as a foreign correspondent, Bassett would visit mansions still echoing with parties and distinguished guests, dilapidated boarding houses that had welcomed better guests, train carriages and cafes, where furtive rendezvous often took place and events unfolded. the spy game between west and east. All this, along with memorable meetings and moments, such as the funeral of King Nicola of Montenegro in Cetinje, a bridge game with the man who was the last living man to be decorated by the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph or the last representative of the KGB in Prague, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Music and painting, architecture and landscape, food and wine, unlikely friendships and history run through the pages of this book, in a wonderful evocation that constitutes a true tribute to the old continent.