Charles Baxter teaches at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of seven other works of fiction, including ‘Believers’, ‘Harmony of the World’, and ‘Through the Safety Net’.

'Rich, strange, alive with the miracles of daily life, this novel is a banquet for the soul. So many wonderful characters, all of whom I came to cherish ... Truly, this is a novel in which the unexpected is always upon us.' Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever and The Voyage of the Narwhal 'Superb. A near-perfect book, as deep as it is broad in its humaneness, comedy and wisdom. He has created a world no very different from one of those panoramic town scenes of Bruegel or Stanley Spencer - each character fully realised yet part of the larger whole - that one does not so much look at as step into, and from which one emerges a little transformed.' Washington Post 'A spectacular novel that serves up everything its title promises.' New York Post 'A well plotted, deeply humane kaleidoscope of lives.' Time Out 'This novel can cure insomnia, easing the self-recriminatory worries that cause sleepless nights; it might even briefly reconcile the reader to life.' TLS

Charles Baxter teaches at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of seven other works of fiction, including ‘Believers’, ‘Harmony of the World’, and ‘Through the Safety Net’.

'Rich, strange, alive with the miracles of daily life, this novel is a banquet for the soul. So many wonderful characters, all of whom I came to cherish ... Truly, this is a novel in which the unexpected is always upon us.' Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever and The Voyage of the Narwhal 'Superb. A near-perfect book, as deep as it is broad in its humaneness, comedy and wisdom. He has created a world no very different from one of those panoramic town scenes of Bruegel or Stanley Spencer - each character fully realised yet part of the larger whole - that one does not so much look at as step into, and from which one emerges a little transformed.' Washington Post 'A spectacular novel that serves up everything its title promises.' New York Post 'A well plotted, deeply humane kaleidoscope of lives.' Time Out 'This novel can cure insomnia, easing the self-recriminatory worries that cause sleepless nights; it might even briefly reconcile the reader to life.' TLS

Charles Baxter teaches at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of seven other works of fiction, including ‘Believers’, ‘Harmony of the World’, and ‘Through the Safety Net’.

'Rich, strange, alive with the miracles of daily life, this novel is a banquet for the soul. So many wonderful characters, all of whom I came to cherish ... Truly, this is a novel in which the unexpected is always upon us.' Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever and The Voyage of the Narwhal 'Superb. A near-perfect book, as deep as it is broad in its humaneness, comedy and wisdom. He has created a world no very different from one of those panoramic town scenes of Bruegel or Stanley Spencer - each character fully realised yet part of the larger whole - that one does not so much look at as step into, and from which one emerges a little transformed.' Washington Post 'A spectacular novel that serves up everything its title promises.' New York Post 'A well plotted, deeply humane kaleidoscope of lives.' Time Out 'This novel can cure insomnia, easing the self-recriminatory worries that cause sleepless nights; it might even briefly reconcile the reader to life.' TLS