Man Walks Into A Room

ONE

May 2000

WHEN THEY FOUND him he was halfway down the only stretch of asphalt that cuts through Mercury Valley. The two police officers saw him up the road, ragged as a crow. He looked at them blankly when they pulled up next to him, neither surprised nor grateful. They asked him questions that seemed to confuse him, and his gaze slipped past them to scout the desert. He didn't struggle when they frisked him. They opened his wallet and counted out twenty-three dollars and change. They read his name and address aloud to him but his expression registered nothing. The man before them in a filthy suit bore almost no resemblance to the bright, focused face on the New York State license; sun had darkened his features and dust had worn itself into the creases of his skin so that it was impossible to believe he was only thirty-six. They assumed he'd stolen the wallet, and though it was clear he was dehydrated and confused they locked his wrists together as they led him into the car. He sat rigidly in the backseat, at a forward tilt with his eyes fixed on the road. They called him Samson not because they believed it was really his name but because they could think of nothing else to call him.

While they treated him in the emergency room in Las Vegas for whatever he was suffering, one of the police officers put in a call for a search on Samson Greene, d.o.b. 1/29/64. When it was discovered that Samson Greene had been missing for eight days, last seen walking out of the gates of Columbia University and down Broadway into the clear afternoon, things began to get interesting. Someone in the Twenty-fourth Precinct in Manhattan was able to connect the police officer to the social services agency where Samson's wife worked, and after speaking to three people he was finally put through to her. Hello? she said quietly into the phone, already informed of who was on the other end. Is he alive?

There was a short, confused discussion: what did he mean, they weren't sure if

Nicole Krauss was born in New York in 1974 and lives in Brooklyn. She has published in Esquire, The Paris Review, and Best American Short Stories. Called "one of the most impressive debuts of 2002" by Esquire, Man Walks Into a Room was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

Casually dazzling . . . thoroughly riveting. (A) --Entertainment Weekly

[M]ysterious and compelling. . . . Krauss brings to her work a poet s gift for seizing upon small but potent details. . . . [A] novel that . . . is hard to forget. --Los Angeles Times Book Review

By turns creepy, witty, austere, and vibey. . . . A major contribution to the art of collective obliviousness, a lonely meditation on the nature of memory and loss. --Esquire

[G]reat nuance and sophisticated prose that seduces you with its cadences. . . . You ll savor the last page and be hungry for future work from this talented author. --The Washington Post Book World

A provocative first novel. . .beautifully written, intellectually engaging. . .Krauss has a remarkable feel for what is ultimately unfathomable. Chicago Tribune

"[A] deft comedy of unfamiliarity... [A] lucid consideration of the metaphysics of mind-shuffling... Krauss celebrates the anything-but-simple art of human connection." San Francisco Chronicle

A meditative debut novel about the pleasures and dangers of forgetting. . .a chilling addition to the annals of amnesia lit." The Village Voice

A deeply philosophical novel, one that strikes upon the nagging paradoxes of modern life. . .With the character of Samson Greene, Nicole Krauss puts a human face on these concerns, and in prose that shimmers with intelligence tells us his potent and memorable story. The Sun-Sentinel

Krauss s work is both dreamy and precise, direct and mysterious, like a more austere Ellen Gilchrist or Ian McEwan. Bookforum

Memory and the ramifications of losing it are explored with all the precision of a CAT scan. . . . Charges bravely into a tangle of difficult questions. San Diego Union-Tribune

An evocative, finely written first novel that is a true work of fiction. A.M. Homes

Unique. . . . Intriguing. . . . It is impossible to read this book without wondering what you would do in the same situation; that reason alone is