Five World Wars have devastated the earth. The nation-states and empires of the past are long gone. Only tribes and settlements of religious fanatics are left. And then there are 36 megacities - the Hanseatic League. But it is impossible to get in: the 36 cities of the Hanseatic Leage have sealed themselves off. This is the story of Shimmy, a young slave, who one day manages to achieve the impossible: he gets inside Carthage, one of the Hanseatic Cities, and experiences a world of wonders ... Hannes Stein is a writer and journalist whose novels were very successful in his native Germany. This is his first American book.