A joyful, freewheeling, funny and profound new collection from ''one of the most inventive, adventurous and accomplished fiction writers in the US today'' (Lionel Shriver)

For one woman, a cross-country train ride becomes a parallel journey into the dark psyche of American manhood. An old man and his neighbour enter strike up a friendship that might a more sinister battle of wits than he first thinks. A man, waiting for his wife in a bar on Valentine''s Day, is plagued by a stranger who claims to be clairvoyant.

In electric prose T. C. Boyle explores myriad facets of society: greed and excess, parenthood and responsibility, the digital world and the way we understand our mortality. Roaming unrestrainedly through the present and near future, he inhabits his characters'' minds with a ventriloquist''s flair, skewering human motivations and revealing us to ourselves with empathy and wry humour.