In this rollicking novel, 96-year-old ornithologist Luka Levadski foregoes treatment for lung cancer and moves from Ukraine to Vienna to make a grand exit in a luxury suite at the Hotel Imperial. He reflects on his past while indulging in Viennese cakes and savoring music in a gilded concert hall. Levadski, was born in 1914, the same year that the last of the now extinct-carrier pigeons, Martha, died. Levadski connects with Martha, feeling as if he, too, is the last of his species.