Joshua Ferris's new novel is both a profoundly tender portrait of a man whose downfall is his desperate need to be loved, and a witty portrayal of a life lost in the American dream. Charlie Barnes is a father, small-business owner, con-man and failure. At sixty-eight and on his fifth marriage, he is facing the end of his life. It's down to Charlie's son Jake, to write his father's story. From a winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the PEN/Hemingway Award.