Excerpt from The Valley of Unknowing by Philip Sington, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

'Bruno!' he called after me. 'Be careful with that, will you? It's the only copy.'

I made a big show of tucking the novel under my jacket and gave Schilling a wave through the closing doors. It didn't strike me as odd that the manuscript had not been copied, the right to textual reproduction being restricted in the Workers' and Peasants' State to the organs of government, the church and public libraries. If Schilling had not made a copy, I assumed this was due to the technical and bureaucratic difficulties involved. That he might be anxious to protect the author (and himself) from some unspecified threat occurred to me hardly at all.

Reprinted from The Valley of Unknowing by Philip Sington. Copyright (c) 2012 by Philip Sington. With the permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company. All rights reserved.