A Box of Matches

8vo. Pp. [viii], 178, [2]. Illustrated wraps.

A slim novel filled with idle thoughts about the trivia of daily life. During a month in the life of a forty-five-year-old editor of medical textbooks, Emmett – married with children, a cat, and a duck – ruminates about the meaning of life during his pre-dawn fire-lighting ritual.

Author's sixth novel, the first since his excursion into non-fiction, Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, won the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award. "[Baker's] most affecting and satisfying novel yet." –Newsweek