India, July 25 -- The protagonist of Herta Muller's Traveling on One Leg is Irene, a fragile woman, born to a German family in Romania, who has recently emigrated from Romania to Germany. The novel focuses on her relationship with three men: Franz, whom she met in Romania and who is unwilling to respond to her love for him; Stefan, a friend of Franz; and Thomas, a bookseller in perpetual crisis about his identity. As a recent emigre and unassimilated Romanian in Germany, Irene feels neither longing for Romania nor any comfort in her newly adopted home. Politically and socially isolated, she moves within the emotional orbit of these three men, while at the same time moving between West Berlin, Marburg, and Frankfurt, taking a dissonant journey within strange yet familiar territory. Characterised by a sense of isolation, Traveling on One Leg is a poignant exploration of exile, homeland and identity....