Ethan Grout realises it's his 27th birthday when he receives a card from the fitness centre he recently quit along with the only job he had ever held. His father's life (and recent funeral) had featured a large cast: but his father had worked in film and travelled the world, whilst Ethan roamed an empty house in the suburbs, trying to convince the neighbours he wasn't alone. Having moved into a tiny room above a busy city bar, the buzz and lights of downstairs and the street soothing him to sleep, Ethan takes a new job, and another, and even another - collecting a life as he goes.
