Thai Mysteries

Ever since a shred of shrapnel did a number on his brain's sleep center, Even Tanner has been awake 24/7. This gives him more time than your average underachiever. Time to learn the world's languages (he's fluent in Basque, but has trouble with Chinese). Time to embrace the world's lost causes and irredentist movements (The Flat Earth Society, the League for the Restoration of Cilician Armenia, the Society of the Left Hand). Time to write term papers theses for students with more money than knowledge.

Thais is not a regular woman. She's 38 but her mind is settled in much earlier years. Her family died in a car accident, but she adopted a new one. Thais is a hoarder and works in an apartment building as a cleaning lady, hating all the residents. And she will do anything, anything at all, for a certain man in her life, for a man who said she was beautiful, Timur Ozin.