Breathtaking in its sensuous originality and metaphoric power, this is the story of Zach, a graduate student of philosophy in the midst of a nervous breakdown. Like Nietzsche before him, Zachary Brannagan lays himself in the middle of the road to die. A fortuitous rescue brings him into the sympathetic, cerebral care of Michael Lazar, a psychiatrist who coaxes Zach to health with contraband delicacies from his wife's kitchen and a homespun, probing intelligence. Lazar propels Zach on a journey to seek identity and meaning through experience, not scholarship. What unfolds is a haunting, sublime American story that marks the arrival of a masterful new voice in fiction. The journey itself, an extraordinary confrontation with an America he has never known, leads him to one evanescent place: the lake. Here he meets the inimitable Anna Beauchamp, as earthy as Zach is flighty, but just as damaged. At the lake, where Anna is caretaker of forgotten, disabled children, Anna awakens Zach to a life of concrete physical experience, and unwittingly teaches him the value of working with the body. Though Zach is drawn irresistably to Anna and this rambling place, he sets out on a new journey with Anna's most beloved charge, the mute boy Samuel. It is only when tragedy strikes that he returns to the lake, to Anna, and to the lasting succor of love.