<DIV>On the top floor of a small hospital, an unlikely piano prodigy lies in a coma, attended to by his gruff, helpless father. Outside the clinic, a motley vigil assembles beneath a reluctant New Mexico winter?strangers in search of answers, a brush with the mystical, or just an escape. To some the boy is a novelty, to others a religion. Just beyond this ragtag circle roams a disconsolate wolf on his nightly rounds, protecting and threatening, learning too much. And above them all, a would-be angel sits captive in a holding cell of the afterlife, finishing the work he began on earth, writing the songs that could free him. This unlikely assortment?a small-town mayor, a vengeful guitarist, all the unseen desert lives?unites to weave a persistently hopeful story of improbable communion.<BR><BR>Upon the release of John Brandon's last novel, <I>Citrus County</I>, the <I>New York Times</I> declared that he "joins the ranks of writers like Denis Johnson, Joy Williams, Mary Robison and Tom Drury." Now, with <I>A Million Heavens</I>, Brandon brings his deadpan humor and hard-won empathy to a new realm of gritty surrealism?a surprising and exciting turn from one of the best young novelists of our time.</DIV>