Publisher's Synopsis
On the point of expiration, octogenarian Alec Dodgson, a logic buff, is shunted via a space-time wormhole to a primitive village on a far-off tidally-locked planet. The inhabitants, one of whom is Alec's father, have been brought thither at various times by similar means. Tradition holds that they find themselves in purgatory. Among other things, Alec learns that certain of the laws of logic seem to failing locally, resulting in the actualization of "unactualized possible," or fictional, characters. Alec falls in love with a somewhat enigmatic villager called Grace, and eventually sets out with her and his father on an arduous journey to a place called Kew, where, so it's rumoured, their state of suspense can be resolved expeditiously. On the way they encounter two claimants to the French crown, a religious sect of "Morrons" given to cultivating large bunions, a Russian ogre, fallen angels, and a neanderthal settlement, and achieve enlightenment as to the divine administration of the universe. They pursue their goal until overwhelmed by increasingly radical logical aberrations.
