"My Name is Tristan Smith. I was born in Chemin Rouge in Efica - which is to say as much to you, I bet, as if I declared I was from the moon." he Unusual Life of Tristan Smith is a dense, funny, moving novel set in the nations of Voorstand and Efica. Severley afflicted, doomed never to be taller than three foot six, Tristan Smith faces death and danger from the first moment of his energetic and ambitious life.