From the author of the lost masterpiece, Tony and Susan, comes a kind of intellectual who dunnit, a novel with the thrill of the chase combined with a meditation on who we are, and who we might like to be.

Peter Gregory, a 35-year-old high school English teacher with an ex-wife and kids, tries to drown himself in the Ohio River. Failing to manage even that, he decides to hitch a ride east, fleeing the state and escaping accusations of rape and murder. As he assumes and discards aliases along the way, he believes that he can begin again, a fresh start - but the past has a habit of catching up with all of us, no matter how fast we run...