The author is reading this novel as it is being written, beginning his journey on a desolate street after striking a little boy with his car. There are no witnesses. There is no reason to fear recrimination from a higher power. Yet the author is conscience-compelled to divine the boy's state. Set against an incongruous backdrop of mythic canon and the grime of the city, the novel follows the author's desperate plight even as his flights of fancy undermine the authenticity of the narration. With his loved ones imperiled and his sanity losing its grip, can the author receive some sort of...