From the internationally bestselling author of Love's
Executioner and When Nietzsche Wept**, comes a novel of
group therapy with a cast of memorably wounded characters struggling to
heal pain and change lives**
Suddenly confronted with his own mortality after a routine checkup,
eminent psychotherapist Julius Hertzfeld is forced to reexamine his life
and work -- and seeks out Philip Slate, a sex addict whom he failed to
help some twenty years earlier. Yet Philip claims to be cured --
miraculously transformed by the pessimistic teachings of German
philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer -- and is, himself, a philosophical
counselor in training.
Philip's dour, misanthropic stance compels Julius to invite Philip to
join his intensive therapy group in exchange for tutoring on
Schopenhauer. But with mere months left, life may be far too short to
help Philip or to compete with him for the hearts and minds of the group
members. And then again, it might be just long enough.