A brilliantly funny and bizarre novel from the author of 'Little Brother', now published for the first time in the UK. Alan is a middle-aged entrepreneur who has devoted himself to fixing up a house in a bohemian neighbourhood of Toronto. This naturally brings him into contact with the housefull of students and layabouts next door, including a young woman who, in a moment of stress, reveals to him that she has wings - wings, moreover, which grow back after each attempt to cut them off. Alan understands. He himself has a secret or two. His father is a mountain, his mother a washing machine, and among his brothers are a set of Russian nesting dolls.