MY NAME IS ION. Who could have imagined the fate that awaited me: my birth under a dictatorship, the loss of my eyesight through an accident, my sudden escape from my homeland to seek a future that was a little too idyllic? One thing is certain: fate is like all the criminals that I listen to today for the Belgian federal police. With a little willpower, there’s always a way to dodge its tricks. The person who taught me that is a close and loyal childhood friend. That friend is literature. Without her, I probably wouldn’t be what I am now, here, among you.