In this extraordinary novel of mischief and menace, we see a young
man's very self vanishing before his eyes--from the winner of the
PEN/Malamud Award and "one of our most gifted writers" (Chicago
Tribune)
"Entirely original.... So craftily construcyed that to appreciate how
liberally Baxter plants creepy hints of what's to come a reader should
really savor this book twice." --The Washington Post
As a graduate student in upstate New York, Nathaniel Mason is drawn into
a tangle of relationships with people who seem to hover just beyond his
grasp. There's Theresa, alluring but elusive, and Jamie, who is fickle
if not wholly unavailable. But Jerome Coolberg is the most mysterious
and compelling. Not only cryptic about himself, he seems also to have
appropriated parts of Nathaniel's past that Nathaniel cannot remember
having told him about.