The extraordinary narrator of The Banner of the Passing Clouds is born on the day Stalin dies and is given his name - Iosif Dzhugashvili - by a hospital official. He becomes convinced that Stalin, freed from the constraints of an old and finished body, has found a new dwelling place within his chest, behind his heart: a burden he both welcomes and fears. In Iosif, Anthea Nicholson has created a unique and intriguing character: a victim of the Soviet Georgian regime which infiltrates his inner life, who is also complicit in its ideology and practices. Only when Iosif unwittingly destroys his family's happiness is he forced to question his convictions and begin on the path to redemption.