Six days ago, a man blew himself up by the side of a road in northern The explosion that detonates the narrative of Paul Auster`s remarkable novel also ends the life of its hero, Benjamin Sachs, and brings two FBI agents to the home of one of Sachs` oldest friends, the writer Peter Aaron. What follows is Aaron`s story, an intricate, subtle and gripping investigation of another man`s life in all its richness and complexity.