Viking/Penguin, Toronto, 2004, 1^st, Uncorrected and Unpublished Proof.  Trade soft cover, 367 pages.  Very good; light edge and cover wear, small spot on top edge; tight binding; gently read if at all.  ‘Liberating, unpredictable, ... is a virtuoso novel that is also a powerful critique of the sentimental pieties of the conventional love story.  As it explores the confounding ways that life and fiction overlap, its lovers reach for a relationship that’s intense and authentic, leading them – as readers will also be led – to question their previously held beliefs about love and identity, intimacy and solitude, emotional intensity and what endures.’ (from rear wrap)