Romance about the most brilliant deception of the 18th century. When court counsellor Wolfgang von Kempelen presents his chess-playing automaton at the Habsburg court in 1770, the machine-man is considered the greatest achievement of the century. But in fact there is a dwarf hidden inside the machine - and this human brain proves to be both deadly and mortal. From the lead chambers of Venice to the imperial court in Vienna, from the palaces of the Pressburg nobility to the alleys of the Jewish quarter - a thrilling historical novel about a legendary deception.
