<DIV><p>"Sam Savage [creates] some of the most original, unforgettable characters in contemporary fiction. . . . Readers are left with a voice so strong that Savage is able to derive significance from these events by sheer literary force."?Kevin Larimer, <I>Poets & Writers</I></p><p>"Savage's skill is in creating complex first-person characters using nothing but their own voice."?Carolyn Kellogg, <I>Los Angeles Times</I></p><p>"[Savage] creates one of the most intriguing stories?and one of the most vivid characters?that this reader has encountered this year."?<I>The Writer</I></p><p>Sam Savage's most intimate, tender novel yet follows Harold Nivenson, a decrepit, aging man who was once a painter and arts patron. The death of Peter Meinenger, his friend turned romantic and intellectual rival, prompts him to ruminate on his own career as a minor artist and collector and make sense of a lifetime of gnawing doubt.</p><p>Over time, his bitterness toward his family, his gentrifying neighborhood, and the decline of intelligent artistic discourse gives way to a kind of peace within himself, as he emerges from the shadow of the past and finds a reason to live, every day, in "the now."</p><p><B>Sam Savage</B> is the best-selling author of <I>Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife</I>, <I>The Cry of the Sloth</I>, and <I>Glass</I>. A native of South Carolina, Savage holds a PhD in philosophy from Yale University. He resides in Madison, Wisconsin.</p><BR></DIV>