Shadow World

Ian McEvoy is done with Scotland. No one's ever used his first name - Ian; he's always been just McEvoy, even to his mum. The Scotsman is leaving his hardscrabble childhood behind and looking for adventure. He's likeable and fiercely loyal, but also has the capacity for violence. He's shadowed in his travels by turbulent family history, a precarious relationship with alcohol, and large segments of his life that seem blank. McEvoy soaks up science like a sponge. As he learns from the scientists he encounters, he realizes that there are profound puzzles built into the fabric of nature. His personal challenge is the puzzle of his past and his tenuous grip on reality. Shadow World inhabits the boundary between narrative fiction and science fiction. It follows McEvoy from boisterous youth in the Arizona desert to a surprising climax in the twilight zone of northern Sweden. Does McEvoy's final insight have anything to say about our own sense of what is real?