A survivor of the atomic bombs dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Mr Watanabe has evaded the memory for most of his nomadic life. When the 2011 earthquake strikes, triggering the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the past becomes the present, and Mr Watanabe begins a journey that will change everything. Written with intimacy and compassion, Fracture is a remarkable novel about collective trauma, love and the complexities of human life.

"The literature of the twenty-first century will belong to Neuman." --Roberto Bolano
Searching for an inn, the enigmatic traveler Hans stops in a small city on the border between Saxony and Prussia. The next morning, Hans meets an old organ-grinder in the market square and immediately finds himself enmeshed in an intense debate--on identity and what it is that defines us--from which he cannot break free.
Indefinitely stuck in Wandernburg until his debate with the organ-grinder is concluded, he begins to meet the various characters who populate the town, including a young freethinker named Sophie. Though she is engaged to be married, Sophie and Hans begin a relationship that defies contemporary mores about female sexuality and what can and cannot be said about it.
"Traveler of the Century "is a deeply intellectual novel, chock-full of discussions about philosophy, history, literature, love, and translation. It is a book that looks to the past in order to have us reconsider the conflicts of our present. The winner of Spain's prestigious Alfaguara Prize and the National Critics Prize, "Traveler of the Century "marks the English-language debut of Andres Neuman, a writer described by Roberto Bolano as being "touched by grace."