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Martin Sloane is an artist. His works consist of collages of found
objects carefully crafted into scenes and images of rare emotional
resonance. They are clever creations, inspired by his childhood in
Ireland and Canada, but art is not Martin Sloane's main talent. The
skill that truly defines him is his knack for disappearing.

The story is partially told from the point of view of Jolene Iolas,
a much younger woman who is romantically involved with Martin until
he walks out of her house in the middle of the night, never to be
seen again.

What drove him away? Was it her insistence that he move in with
her? Or did her emotionally needy friend Molly, visiting the couple
for the first time in years, reveal something he found unbearable?
Molly also abandons Jolene that night and does not speak to her for
the next 10 years. Despite the sense of bereftness Jolene carries
from the early death of her mother, she rallies quite well from her
desertion. Then the two people she's closest to in the world walk
out of her life on the same night with no explanation, yet she
manages to contain her pain and confusion and form a life for
herself in Canada. She goes to Toronto looking for signs of Martin
but she does not find him there. Instead, she takes a teaching job,
gets an apartment and starts dating. Her life seems practically
normal until she hears from Molly, who summons her to Ireland
saying she knows where Martin is.

Interspersed with scenes from the estranged friends' trip are
scenes from Martin's childhood. He is by far the most interesting
character, and the most engaging parts of the book are those that
show how Martin copes with illness and family misfortune, slowly
learning the lesson that those he loves would be better off without
him. Like Martin's art, this is a careful, detailed book. It
explores in depth the question: Can we ever really know those we
love? Given the ease of abandonment, should we even bother to
try?

There isn't much reconciliation in this book. The three main
characters, Martin, Jolene, and Molly, circle each other and go
away again, yet they never seem to learn anything from their
experiences; their relationships are always the same, no matter how
many years go by between meetings. It never seems to occur to
Jolene to blame herself, and she can't even guess what's behind her
double abandonment. She's deeply hurt and inflicted with a
confusion that must color her future relationships, but she is no
better able to plot out the cause and effect of her own behavior
than she was when she sought Martin in her college years. She
doesn't know why she follows Molly to Ireland or what she would do
if she actually found her lost lover. Perhaps unsurprising for a
character with so little interest in introspection, her journey
brings her, and the reader, more questions than answers.