Aging widower Tobias Seltzer prefers to spend his time with dead authors rather than live, but flawed, humans. That is, until the night Mayflower Bryant corners him in the basement laundry of the Coronado and persuades him to dance with her in his skivvies. Almost against his will, Tobias is drawn into the lives of his misfit neighbors - a grieving widower, a pregnant, homeless teenager, a one-handed juggler, a Vietnam vet left brain-damaged by a misfired suicide attempt, a woman on the edge of Alzheimer's - and discovers that all problems can't be solved by reading books. Sometimes, the only solution is life itself. Dan Gilmore's debut novel takes a darkly humorous, painfully honest look at this last-minute journey toward love and self-discovery.