In this novel two very different men cross each other's paths in St. Louis, Missouri. Ben Hudnut is an upper-middle-class entrepreneur determined to bring an affordable cashew to American consumers. When he isn't pursuing this goal, he's usually in the company of his wife and four daughters-occasionally joined for family dinner by his dull but devoted secretary. Jeremy Cook, meanwhile, is a cynical unemployed academic, a linguist who doesn't know what to do with himself-until he's pressured into studying Ben Hudnut's baby girl and her unusual speech patterns. But as different as these two men are, they will soon have one thing in common, as both of their lives begin to fall apart around them

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