Is there a difference between doing "the good thing" and
doing "the right thing?" Ask Tibo Krovic. He's the mayor of
Dot, a small island just a ferry ride from the island of
Dash, somewhere in the Baltic Sea. Most people refer to him
as "Good Tibo Krovic" and some even think that "good" is
his first name.
Mayor Tibo Krovic is in love with his secretary, Mrs.
Agathe Stopak. Yes, she is married, though unhappily, and
that prevents Mayor Krovic from doing the "right" thing.
Their "affair" is very platonic. They shower each other
with gifts of kindness and beauty, but Krovic never kisses
Agathe or declares his love. The relationship is so
platonic that Agathe cannot stand it anymore. In a fit of
anger over the situation, she runs away to her husband's
cousin, a rather shady character, and moves in with him for
three years. Agathe decides if she can't have exactly what
she wants, she can be happy with what is just good. But
things are not good; Agathe is deceiving herself.
During those three years, Mayor Krovic slowly pines away
for Agathe. He still loves her; she still works for him
every day, and it is tearing him to pieces. He finally
decides that there is only so much love in the world, and
he cannot afford to waste another day. He must finally do
the "right" thing, even if it is not a "good" thing.
Will Tibo Krovic entice Agathe to return to him? This
delightful novel is filled with magical spells, far-away
places and Walpurnia, a bearded old legend in Dot who spins
this tale of love lost and hopefully found again. But what
will their fate be if they do find themselves together at
last?
In a busy little city in a forgotten corner of the Baltic,
in an office on the square, the beloved mayor of Dot lies
on his office floor, peering beneath his door. Tibo Krovic
has come to work from his house down at the end of a blue-
tiled path. He’s taken, as usual, the tram seven stops,
and walked the final two. He’s stopped for strong Viennese
coffee. And now Tibo Krovic is looking at the perfectly
beautiful feet of his voluptuous, unhappily married
secretary, Mrs. Agathe Stopak. The Good Mayor is badly in
love.
And over the course of days, months, and years, amid
life’s daily routine—a fallen lunch pail, a single
touch . . . a handwritten note and then a terrible choice—
he and Agathe must come to terms with this thing that has
seized hold of them both, exploring the tastes of desire
and despair, love, friendship, and betrayal. . . . Until
fate, magic, and their own actions lift them from their
moorings—toward an utterly unexpected future.
Their tortuous road to bliss is fraught with phantom
circus performers, malevolent painters, rotund lawyers,
mysterious fortune-tellers—and every single one of love’s
astonishing little cruelties and miracles.
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