The Cage

The Cage is an extraordinary tale of mystery and suspense by one of Latvia’s leading novelists. One day Edmunds Berz, a successful married architect, disappears without trace while driving home to Riga from his parents’ farm. No one knows whether he has eloped with an old flame, or fallen foul of Communist bureaucracy. Even his car has disappeared. Police investigations are initiated but soon reach an impasse with no evidence of his whereabouts, alive or dead, while the lead investigator finds himself exploring parallels between their lives, musing that their fates may be interchangeable. The narrative propels the reader to an eerie, claustrophobic, and uncertain climax—which readers have interpreted as an allegory of Soviet oppression. Part of the new-look Peter Owen Modern Classics range featuring a logo crafted by graphic design icon Alvin Lustig.

Ojars Kratins is the translator of Alberts Bels classic work of soviet crime literature, The Cage. Alberts Bels was born in 1938 near Riga in Latvia. He studied for two years at a technical college then joined the Moscow Circus School. His time here was cut short by military service, and subsequently he worked as a draughtsman, sports instructor, and illustrator on archaeological digs. In the 1960s he worked as a professional mime artist. His first and second novels from 1967 and 1972 were very successful and have been translated into a number of languages. The Cage was his third to be translated into English.