Who is this hero who beckons the reader to join him on his long, strange trip? Maybe he’s a Grinch-like misanthrope or perhaps an anti-social introvert.

In any case, he encounters someone who is going to ensure he finds equilibrium in the world and who is going to enrich his inner and outer world during the most perplexing time of his life. He gets to taste the meaning of what it’s like to ponder, to avoid, to long for, and to give importance to someone else. As for his long, strange trip, it’s guaranteed to drag the reader transiting, skipping and leaping from reality to dreamland, from the past to the present and future, and from dialogue to one’s inner voice.

I’m all messed up. I drank until the break of day. I could barely get up from my armchair and plunked down on the bed face up without changing into my PJs. I shut my eyes in the tar pit darkness and listened to my heaving breath that exited my nose. Just then, I started feeling cold. I couldn’t find the strength in me to get up, close the window, turn on the heater and clamber beneath the blanket. When I started to freeze up from my feet upwards, I then felt a mouse waltzing Matilda on my back as it nibbled on my sweater. My eyes, nose and lips began twitching uncontrollably. I tried to pull myself together. I told myself this was neither a dream nor a nightmare and that I needed to get ready to set out on a long, strange trip…