Phil Jarrett is on the cusp of finding the universal antigen for dengue fever, which is currently ravaging the tropical world. He is also about to lose his girlfriend and his friend, mentor and former employer and father-in-law. Add to that, his ex-wife, Marcie, whom he still loves and who five years before dumped him and left him heavily in debt, is coming back to California with her new husband, a rich boy, tall, dark and handsome but with the mindset of a thug. This is a story about the interaction of professional and personal life, about loss and reconciliation.
Nicholas Guild was born in Belmont, California in 1944. He graduated from Occidental College with a B.A. in English in 1966 and from the University of California at Berkeley with an M.A. in Comparative Literature (1968) and a Ph.D. in English (1972). Since then he has divided his time between teaching and writing. He currently lives in Frederick, MD.