Augie Cabrelli, a single, middle-aged scientist, has lived with a disability ever since he was nineteen. Thanks to two separate events decades earlier, one psychological, one physical, he has no memory of his early life. His quiet, easy existence in New Zealand is interrupted one early morning by a phone call from a North Carolina judge, informing him that his only living relative, his ex-law school professor mother, has died suddenly.
While tackling his mother's funeral and estate arrangements, he discovers an old newspaper clipping relating to a British by-election from when he was three years old, when his long-dead uncle had been running for government. His mother's final letter to him leaves little information, but finishes with a mysterious apology for having forced his first love to disappear from his life. With few clues to go on, Augie eventually decides to dig deeper into his past, but he does not realize he is being watched and controlled by a secretive organization with an entirely different agenda.
Aided by cutting-edge virtual reality technology, he discovers the truth about why his childhood is so important, why his memories were covered up, and how a series of shocking, violent events experienced by himself and his late uncle harbour a secret that threatens to destroy a government.
The long-awaited second book in the XUSA series blends elements of humour, high-tech, and political intrigue into a psychological mystery with twists and turns until the final page.
