The Long Habit of Living begins as three New Yorkers find themselves on the road to exile, fleeing despair in hopes of finding salvation in southern France. Told both in flashback and in present-tense narrative, the story, violent and psychological, sends the characters through events and adventures on the streets and alleys of New York and through the winding countryside and dark history of the Vaucluse. The central focus of the novel is the character of Owen Sarjevo and the events that bring him to shed his every principle and belief to consider and plan an ultimate act against a family member--fratricide. As the story vacillates between New York and France, we find out the source of Owen's headlong rush into perdition and his possible salvation among the eccentric characters and conditions he encounters. It is among a panorama of characters and the rich background of rural France that Owen tries to find redemption from his violent and corrupted past. With a tip of one's cap to novelists like Robertson Davies and John Cowper Powys, this is a novel of complex relationships, unexpected ironies, and uncertain metaphysics.