

On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college.

When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist.

Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.Ĭrouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters.
