“This ambitious, adventurous writer... recalls Anton Chekhov with his amused appreciation of human foibles.”—Wendy Smith, Chicago TribuneJonathan, a paleontologist, is searching in vain for a prehistoric giant squid; his wife, Madeline, an animal behaviorist, cannot explain her failing experiment; their daughter Amelia is a disappointed teenage revolutionary; her younger sister, Thisbe, is on a frustrated search for God; and their grandfather, Henry, wants to disappear, limiting himself to eleven words a day, then ten, then nine - one less each day until he will speak no more. Each fears uncertainty and the possibilities that accompany it. When Jonathan and Madeline suddenly decide to separate, this nuclear family is split and forced to confront its own cowardice, finally coming to appreciate the cloudiness of this modern age.