A curmudgeon hides a terrible personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbors, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship.

"From Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford: the final novel in the world of Frank Bascombe, one of the most indelible characters in American literature Over the course of four celebrated works of fiction and almost forty years, Richard Ford has crafted an ambitious, incisive, and singular view of American life as lived. Unconstrained, astute, provocative, often laugh-out-loud funny, Frank Bascombe is once more our guide to the great American midway....

Harry Lipkin, the world's oldest private investigator, takes on the case of Norma Weinberger, a wealthy woman whose belongings are being pilfered by one of her staff, people she employs, trusts, cares for, and treats like family.

High society journalist Gus Bailey was sued for $11 million for a fake story he repeated on the radio concerning a powerful congressman and a missing young woman. The stress from the lawsuit makes it difficult to finish the novel he's writing about the suspicious death of billionaire Konstantin Zacharias. The convicted murderer is in jail but, Gus is not convinced they have the right person and Konstantin's wife will do anything to suppress the story....

"The story of an elderly man who, rather than give up his independence, heads off on a joyride with a new young friend"--

Presents an experimental novel depicting a dream of world history, with characters from literature and history appearing and disappearing, written in a dream language that is a comical mixture of all the languages of Europe.