"Iris", the narrator and heroine of this wonderful novel, guides the reader through twenty-four episodes from her life, pausing now and then for meditations on love, sex, work, loneliness, insomnia, arctic exploration, cannibalism, the Higgs boson, Greek mythology, memory, costumes parties, time travel, literary immortality, real estate trends, and growing up and growing old. An urban odyssey, and a wistful, wise, and wry look at a young woman trying to find her home in the world.