Chapter One
The Holiday 칵테일 Lounge

It was always 크리스마스 down at the Holiday 칵테일 Lounge on St. Mark's Place in the East Village; the twinkling lights were left hanging up on the crossbeams year-round, just like the silver tinsel looped around the edge of the counter and the cheerful 나무, 트리 in the back, its ornaments glittering in the dim light. The Holiday, as the regulars called it, was a New York institution. The bar had been a speakeasy during Prohibition, and counted as its patrons the poet W. H. Auden, who lived 다음 door, and Trotsky, who bunked across the street.

No one could...