Publisher's Synopsis
From a lifetime's reading W.B. Gooderham has distilled this unique book-an anthology of literary characters, with a different male and female voice for each year of a person's life. The characters collected here reveal the sum of a human life, giving a sense of the passage of time from conception to old age through the prism of literature: the minuscule changes wrought upon our bodies and minds as consciousness blooms, experiences accrue, hopes rise and fall, options expand and then retract. Each of these voices-by turns witty and despairing, unexpected and apt-will strike a chord, showing us new ways of relating to some of the finest characters in literature as well as deeper ways of understanding the ways in which we change over time.
