How does a man addicted to routine cope with the chaos of everyday life? Macon does his best. He writes Armchair Tourist guidebooks that soothe the travel-hating businessman. Even when his son, Ethan, is murdered and his wife leaves him, Macon folds his anguish neatly back into place and adapts the household routine on to more efficient lines. So when he meets Muriel, dog trainer from the Meow-Bow dog clinic - thin, chaotic, outrageous, vulnerable - he considers that his defences against love and pain are in excellent working order. Bending glorious comedy with aching sadness, Anne Tylers novel maps out the landscape of a mans hesitant heart with tenderness, sharpness and unputdownable truth.