The physical scope of this novel is- by anyone's standards- modest: two characters visit the park; another drifts to the late-night bar at the end of the street. For most of the time the novel moves not much further than the failing grocery shop that is its main focus. And yet it's the most bracing, expansive exploration of human yearning and dreams (frustrated and otherwise) that you could hope to find. It's a magical novel, very quietly done, with a syncopated, Yiddish inflection to its patterns. A unique book and, finally, an uplifting one.