Richard Novak is a modern-day Everyman, a middle-aged divorcé trading stocks out of his home. He has done such a good job getting his life under control that he needs no one--except his trainer, nutritionist, and housekeeper. He is functionally dead and doesn't even notice until two incidents--an attack of intense pain that lands him in the emergency room, and the discovery of an expanding sinkhole outside his house--conspire to hurl him back into the world. He forms the first of many new relationships on his way home from the hospital. In the end, Richard is also brought back in closer touch with his family, including his estranged son. The promised land of Los Angeles is also very much a character in this novel about compassion, transformation, and what can happen if you are willing to lose yourself and open up to the world around you.--From publisher description.