Hugo Hamilton's The Pages is itself narrated by a book, a copy of Joseph Roth's Rebellion that is rescued by a university professor from the Nazi regime's 1933 book burning in Berlin and passed on to one of his students, who in turn entrusts the safety of the text to his son, who subsequently takes it across the Atlantic to America with him, where it eventually ends up in the hands of the emigré's daughter, artist Lena Knecht. The novel opens with Lena en route to Berlin, determined to uncover the mystery of a map drawn in the back of her inherited book. Rebellion is going home.

On arrival in Berlin, Lena has her bag stolen — "This used to be the capital of book thieves" — and fears that her cherished copy of Roth's novel is gone forever. However, the thief thoughtlessly discards the book, thinking it worthless. The narrator describes lying "abandoned in the city of ...