I have absolutely loved Landay's three previous books. He does something interesting every time. Mind you, this is only his 4th book, and it's been a decade since his last. Landay puts care into his novels; there's no churning them out. Aware of the gap, the book starts out with this:

After I finished writing my last novel, I fell into a long silence. You might call it writer’s block, but most writers don’t use that term or even understand it. When a writer goes quiet, nothing is blocking and nothing is being blocked. He is just empty.

I had to look… is this a preface or an introduction? No. It's the story. Landay is already doing something to engage me.