The same goes for US police chief Frannie McCabe's life after burying the peculiar stray dog that died in his office. The dog doesn't stay buried. Neither does a multicoloured feather from no known bird, which reappears in curious places like McCabe's own daughter's new tattoo. McCabe is briefly fast-forwarded to the bitter end of old age in the wrong country with the wrong wife, because history took a turning that shouldn't have happened. Something hard to define but metaphysically important needs doing, they say, and offer McCabe a truly horrible choice.
Someone has to row the wooden sea.
And the only help McCabe will get is from his tiresome other selves. Beneath there's a void of horror, uncertainty, and magical flux. McCabe at least gets what he asks for, though not at all what he wants. As usual, Carroll's storyline is twisted, surreal and indescribable, and for a change it ends on a note of bizarre optimism. A haunting, compelling read.