A Strasbourg-based Scots doctor with a sweeping literary range, Bamforth is well qualified to offer this lively and learned collection of essays and reviews on European culture, past and present. Wittily irreverent, but drily nostalgic for a lost idealism, he moves easily from Berlin to Santiago, Sebald to Céline. This civilised and entertaining quest aims to locate what's left of Europe in the ruins of its grandiose dreams.