When a Chicago attorney receives a terminal diagnosis, he ignores his wife's pleas and embarks on a solitary odyssey, visiting people who have influenced his life, to thank them and to say goodbye. For 30 days and 6,000 miles he drives through the Western U.S., each night making entries in a journal about the day's events, chronicling the trip and revealing to us how it morphs from the purpose he had intended into something else entirely. He encounters qualities in his friends he had not seen before, and through these revelations, aspects of his own character are revealed to him. He discovers...

In Harmony House, Dan Boyle attempts to adapt to his new life as a recent widower. His serial infidelities and alienation from his wife preceding her death haunt him, and as much as he wants to insulate himself from family, friends and neighbors, "untethering" from relationships proves difficult. Shedding obligations is easier wished than done. As he examines his behavior during his marriage and following his wife's diagnosis and death, Dan accepts that he has failed to live up to his own standards, much less the standards of others. He is torn between admitting his shortcomings and ignoring...