his fictional riff on Hemingway lore has the magic and the bite of a tale by the author himself. It’s a late night in October 1922, when the Orient Express deposits a pugnacious young American at a remote Bulgarian train station. The stationmaster reluctantly takes him in, and his pretty daughter is soon won over by the unwelcome guest. What’s a father to do? The old man’s scheme thwarts a girl’s dream of Paris, and, by morning, the only clue remaining is the stranger’s name--Ernest Hemingway-- on a sheet of paper.