D'Erasmo's latest novel tells the story of a misanthropic obituary writer for a dying New Yor

newspaper, who views his life through a series of memory boxes modelled on the assemblage art

wire and old nails: the stuff of transformation,!± he says. He narrates the drudgery of the daily

grind and scrutinizes his dysfunctional, fatherless childhood, during which he rebelled against

his mother by dealing drugs and engaging in sex with men for money. Now nearing forty and

spiritually broken, he is given a diagnosis of cancer and travels to a commune in Mexico, where

he reluctantly receives the help of a clairvoyant eight-year-old girl. Although the book strays into

portentous magic realism, its lyrical prose and telling detail create a powerful atmosphere.

--------------------------by New Yorker