"Highly entertaining...fascinating...Smith writes vividly...he has a talent for
descriptive imagery."--New York Times

"Lyrical...poetic and darkly romantic...evocative."--Boston Globe

Dominic Smith's novel explores genius and loss, failure and redemption, and a son's struggle
with the crushing weight of his father's expectations. Nathan Nelson is just above average in
everything he does. However, his father, a renowned physicist, pursuing his quest to uncover
his son's latent gifts, sends Nathan to whiz-kid summer camps to learn college algebra. By
the time Nathan is seventeen, hopes for a late-blooming prodigy seem dashed. Then a tragic
accident and ensuing coma leave Nathan with an altered mind that allows him to memorize
vast amounts of information. Nathan's father, seeking an application for the new talent, sends
him to a research institute where, amid misfits and savants, Nathan tries to find a purpose for
the new way he perceives the world.