The story in this book is set in 1960s Poland and was banned in that country at the time of publication. A former officer of the "people{u2019}s militia" and a party apparatchik, [the main character] eventually finds himself in a mental hospital, persecuted by the Kafkaesque nightmare of being constantly spied upon by secret agents. Once an autocratic and suspicious administrator himself, he can be regarded as a victim of his own standards, but his naive faith in the party, which has survived all ups and downs, shifts responsibility mostly upon the system and its destructive potential. --what-when-how.com.