When you open your eyes, things already seem to be happening without you. You don't know who you are and you don't remember where you've been. You know the world has changed, that a catastrophe has destroyed what existed before, but you can't remember exactly what did exist before. And you're paralyzed from the waist down, apparently, but you don't remember that either.A man claiming to be your friend tells you your services are required. Something crucial has been stolen, but what he tells you about it doesn't quite add up. You've got to get it back or something bad is going to happen. And you've got to get it back fast, so they can freeze you again before your own time runs out.Before you know it, you're being carried through a ruined landscape on the backs of two men in hazard suits who don't seem anything like you at all, heading toward something you don't understand that may well end up being the death of you.Welcome to the life of Josef Horkai.Critically acclaimed and O. Henry prize–winning author Brian Evenson turns his literary eye to a post–apocalyptic earth in this dazzling science fiction novel.