**Stunning.— *The New York Times Book Review*** * * * * *An outstanding novel of psychological suspense… Few thriller writers today are as gifted as Kellerman.—* Publishers Weekly *** Perpetual graduate student Joseph Geist is at his wit’s end. Recently kicked out of their shared apartment by his girlfriend, he’s left with little more than a half bust of Nietzsche’s head and the realization that he’s homeless and unemployed. He’s hit a dead end on his dissertation; his funding has been cut off. He doesn’t even have a phone. Desperate for some source of income, he searches the local newspaper and finds a curious ad: CONVERSATIONALIST SOUGHT. SERIOUS APPLICANTS ONLY. PLEASE CALL 617-XXX-XXXX BETWEEN SEVEN A.M. AND TWO P.M. NO SOLICITORS. And so Joseph meets Alma Spielman: a woman who, with her old-world ways and razor-sharp mind, is his intellectual soul mate. How is he to know that what seems to be the best decision of his life is the one that seals his fate?