Lazar works for the Ministry of Intangible Assets, cataloging things no one can touch?nostalgia, regret, silence. His life is orderly, gray, and safely meaningless until an expired packet of powdered soup lets him see the world's hidden metadata.

Suddenly, objects have souls, people come with warning labels, and a mysterious group known as the Happy People threatens the foundations of a society built on control and quiet despair. Sent to inventory happiness before it spreads, Lazar is pulled into a collapsing city where kebab stands anchor reality, demons file paperwork, and time itself can be stopped.

Darkly comic, surreal, and quietly profound, The Architecture of Bliss is a novel about bureaucracy, freedom, and the dangerous beauty of choosing to pause.