A major new novel about fathers and sons, friendship and rivalry, and the technologies that are shaping our lives - from the acclaimed author of Leaving the Atocha Station and The Topeka School

A writer returns to his college town, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor. But after he drops his smartphone in the hotel sink, he arrives at Thomas's house with no recording device - a fact he is mysteriously unable to confess. What unfolds from this dreamlike circumstance is both a brilliant meditation on those technologies that enrich and impoverish our connections to each other, that store and obliterate our memories, and a moving exploration of the relationships that make us who we are.

"A short, smart novel about parenthood and influence; about how much of our lives we have ceded to the black rectangles in our pockets" - Observer

"'Novels of ideas' don't need to wear them on their sleeve. Beneath its superficially simple tale of a man visiting his old mentor, this one has impressive depths: it touches on old age, loss and the double-edged sword of modern technology. Lerner ... is already, at just 46, established as one of America's leading writers. This book proves why" - Telegraph

"Puzzle-like... a smart and subtle meditation on technology, memory and the Covid pandemic, as well as a very human story about family and fatherhood. You'll read it, then want to read it again" - GQ

"A Lerner novel is always an event" - FT

"[Poses] daunting questions about how we process information and what memory is" - AnOther

"A layered exploration of memory, masculinity and technology" - Mail on Sunday

"A powerfully distilled novel about fathers and sons, mortality and inheritance and the technologies shaping our lives" - Bookseller