After eleven years of solitude working on his New England mountain as a writer, Nathan Zuckerman returns to New York to confront a turbulent city in the wake of September 11; the erotic challenge of the alluring Jamie; the aging Amy Bellette, one-time muse and companion to his first literary hero, E. I. Lonoff; and Lonoff's determined, would-be biographer. 200,000 first printing.