"This is a Borzoi book" - copyright page.

"A novel" - cover.

Paul Dukach is heir apparent at Purcell & Stern, one of the last independent publishing houses in New York, whose shabby offices on Union Square belie the treasures on its list. Working with his boss, the flamboyant Homer Stern, Paul learns the ins and outs of the book trade-how to work an agent over lunch; how to swim with the literary sharks at the Frankfurt Book Fair; and, most important, how to nurse the fragile egos of the dazzling, volatile authors he adores. But Pauls deepest admiration has always been reserved for one writer: poet Ida Perkins, whose audacious verse and notorious private life have shaped Americas contemporary literary landscape, and whose longtime publisher-also her cousin and erstwhile lover-happens to be Homers biggest rival. And when Paul at last has the chance to meet Ida at her Venetian palazzo, she entrusts him with her greatest secret-one that will change all of their lives forever.