First published 1985
Stephen teaches philosophy at Oxford University, where the boundaries between academic theory and messy reality blur daily. When a terrible accident occurs, he finds himself reexamining everything he thought he understood about chance, choice, and consequence. The event forces Stephen to confront his relationships with students, colleagues, and his own marriage. As he dissects what happened, the line between observer and participant dissolves. Stephen discovers that the ivory tower offers no protection from betrayal, desire, and the complicated games people play with each other. His philosophical training becomes both weapon and shield as he navigates infidelity, academic politics, and the question of whether any human action can truly be called accidental. The investigation reveals how imagination shapes reality and how the act of writing about life changes life itself.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: academic-setting, self-discovery, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Oxford University
Hardcover · Dalkey Archive Press