Description

From the
internationally bestselling author of Love's
Executioner and When
Nietzsche Wept, comes a
novel of group therapy with a cast of memorably wounded characters struggling
to heal pain and change lives

Suddenly confronted with his own
mortality after a routine checkup, eminent psychotherapist Julius Hertzfeld is
forced to reexamine his life and work -- and seeks out Philip Slate, a sex
addict whom he failed to help some twenty years earlier. Yet Philip claims to
be cured -- miraculously transformed by the pessimistic teachings of German
philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer -- and is, himself, a philosophical counselor in
training.

Philip's dour, misanthropic
stance compels Julius to invite Philip to join his intensive therapy group in
exchange for tutoring on Schopenhauer. But with mere months left, life may be
far too short to help Philip or to compete with him for the hearts and minds of
the group members. And then again, it might be just long enough.