SummaryWriter Jacob Winter is a man of principle and practicality.
Unequivocally faithful to his wife, Laura, and devoted to
their son, Max, Jacob is a tireless worker. He does not
cheat at games, does not cheat on his taxes, does not drink
or take any drugs, not even the medication his former
therapist prescribed for an overactive imagination. To keep his racing mind in check, he has learned to order
his life into a routine. He wakes up at the same time every
morning, goes to bed at the same time every night. He
grounds himself in reality, does not engage in speculation
or indulge himself with fantasies of sex or success. But when Jacob stumbles upon the unexpected -- his wife
having an affair -- all of his restraints come crashing
down, overrun by blind rage. When he awakens from his
rampage, he finds himself locked in jail, his meticulously
controlled world spinning out of orbit. And his troubles
have only just begun. Bailed out of jail by ethnobotanist Alix Callahan, a
mysterious woman from his past, Jacob cannot comprehend why
she would suddenly reappear or why she would help him. Nor
does he understand why he is drawn into her obsessive
relationship with her bisexual lover, July, a sultry
Americanized rain-forest Indian. As much as he tries to
distance himself from both women, Jacob and July are
suddenly and inexorably thrown together when they watch
helplessly as Alix plunges from the top of a high-level
bridge. Or does she? As Jacob becomes the focus of an intensive murder
investigation, he struggles with his wayward mind to make
sense of his shattered marriage and maintain his
relationship with his son while at the same time resisting
July's consuming love and divining the mystery of Alix's
apparent suicide. His search leads him to a Florida prison,
an ancient shamanistic Colombian Indian tribe, and
disturbing truths about himself.
|
