Author Description

Hektr Pastrovich, journalist and aspiring poet, is traveling by train to the frontline of his country's long-standing war when he meets a beautiful woman who's so shrouded in mystery she won't even tell Hektr her name. He decides to call her "Helena" after a childhood friend, not suspecting that she would eventually ask for Hektr's assistance in making her way to the front. Hektr's motivations for reaching the front are two-fold: He has been given the task by his editor of writing firsthand accounts of the fighting (no one trusts that the government's reports are accurate), and he hopes to gather more lurid details for some sensational stories to be published by his editor's chief rival. In particular, Hektr hopes to find out more information regarding a vagabond he'd met who referred to himself as the "Prince of Ithaka." After a time, Hektr begins to wonder if Helena is also searching for the Prince of Ithaka.