The metaphysical touch

"In 1991 Emily Piper, a graduate student at Berkeley, has nearly finished her dissertation on metaphysics when her life is changed by the great Berkeley-Oakland fire that destroyed over three thousand homes. Pi loses all her belongings: her books and writings, all the things that reminded her of herself. Though others throw themselves into the task of rebuilding their lives, Pi can't. Instead, she escapes to the small coastal town of Mendocino."--BOOK JACKET.

"On the other coast is JD, a man with an ambition to go: permanently, absolutely. But before making his departure, JD decides to write a record of his jokes and neuroses; of his reflections on his wandering father, Joe; and of his urban, unemployed despair - and post it on the Internet."--BOOK JACKET.

"When JD and Pi encounter each other's words on the Net, the metaphysical sparks start to fly. Is JD who he says he is? Pi, as a recovering philosopher, ought to be able to tell the real world from an imaginary one, but finds herself in doubt. And though her correspondence with JD begins to heat up, she finds a sensual, more material temptation closer by, and her dilemma becomes a perilous instance of the "mind/body problem.""--BOOK JACKET.