Dominic Smith’s novel explores genius and loss, failure and redemption, and a son’s struggle with the crushing weight of his father’s expectations. Nathan Nelson is just above average in everything he does. However, his father, a renowned physicist, pursuing his quest to uncover his son’s latent gifts, sends Nathan to whiz-kid summer camps to learn college algebra. By the time Nathan is seventeen, hopes for a late-blooming prodigy seem dashed. Then a tragic accident and ensuing coma leave Nathan with an altered mind that allows him to memorize vast amounts of information. Nathan’s father, seeking an application for the new talent, sends him to a research institute where, amid misfits and savants, Nathan tries to find a purpose for the new way he perceives the world.

DOMINIC SMITH grew up in Australia and now lives in Austin, Texas, where he received an M.F.A. from the James A. Michener Center for Writers. His fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.