In this "visceral novel" (Kirkus Reviews), the author-protagonist transforms lust into gold through philosophical alchemy. Expat Isham Cook lives a highly ordered life of the mind and is not one to be swayed by circumstance until his dispassionate existence is tripped up by Cookie, an elusive woman glimpsed around his gritty Beijing neighborhood. He then becomes captivated by the flamboyant eroticism of a woman on the subway,...