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“If he would just inject a little humor and poke a little fun at the French, Mr.

What do you do with the news that your wife’s brain tumor is terminal and she has nine months to live?

“It was as if Gloria was sabotaging herself, Sam thought. Well, they were both sabotaging themselves, just going about it from opposite directions.”

Mistletoe, long evenings beside warm fires, even the inevitable eggnog-related indiscretion: It’s no wonder that romance jumps on the holiday bandwagon like no other genre.

Sean Ferrell’s daring first novel, Numb, is a Barthian fable which endeavors to chart a course through the murky waters of sensory overload in the modern world.