August Brill, 72, is recovering from a car accident. He tries to push back thoughts of things he would rather forget - his wife's death and the murder of his granddaughter's boyfriend - by telling himself stories. He imagines a parallel world in which America is at war with itself, the twin towers did not fall, and the 2000 election results led to secession, as state after state pulled away from the union, and a bloody civil war ensued. MAN IN THE DARK is a novel which forces us to confront the blackness of night whilst celebrating ordinary joys in a brutal world.