Publisher's Synopsis
As the novel opens in 1990, David Bradford, an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University with a parallel career as a songwriter on Nashville's music row, is approaching 40 and facing failure in both his academic and musical careers. At this low point in his life, he forms a relationship with a very bright undergraduate student. As his situation deteriorates, he begins to use his sessions with his adoring student as an escape from mounting anxiety about his future. Unfortunately for David, he is unaware of his student's secret double life and serious mental health issues. When she begins to think the love songs he is writing to revive his music career are about her, she pushes him to move their friendship into a sexual relationship. When he pushes her away, her reaction and the things he learns about her convince him that she is about to commit suicide. As he and a colleague, who has been seeing the young girl in therapy, try to prevent her suicide, layers of the mystery of her true identity are slowly revealed. The events in the novel take place within the inner working of the academic world and the process of writing and recording songs.
