First Step to the Project

Let us begin.
The main action takes place in 1972. Now the artifacts start making sense, don't they?
But here and there are memories of the past: 50s, 40s, even 30s. Memories of what never happened in our world. Memories of our world, but unheard of in the world of Mark Toma.
Typical flashback, from the Prologue:

Near the post office my tram slowed down. A neon slogan happily shined through the evening dusk: 'With Deutsche Lufthansa - to Munich Olympics!'. Myriads of red and yellow bulbs twinkled right above the slogan forming the shape of jet-propelled Junkers.
Then I moved through fifteen hundred yards of luxury: best hotels, most fashionable shops, brand-new posh cars. And girls, dressed after future summer fashion.
Once again came a memory of things that never happened. Strange year when we didn't go to Lago di Garda and spent the whole summer in a country house. For hours my father was sitting beside the radio - usually not his favorite device.
And sunny September day, when lessons were suddenly canceled. My classmates and I stood on department store roof watching the Germans. Nobody looked for us. And we looked at the troops marching through this luxurious boulevard. Rolling in half-track carriers. To Hell the carriers, they had half-track motorcycles, fantastic machines we'd never seen before! Now we looked and looked... A huge piece of cloth was pouring from the roof right to the pavement. Red cloth with a swastika inside a white circle.

Illustration: Vienna, 1938. © Bundesarchiv. Cropped image, full version here.