Judge John Gregory Brown, the chair of the awards panel, wrote of the novel: "It is a remarkably astute and funny novel about death, utterly convincing in every way.

If this author isn't an elderly psychiatrist from New York, then the novel is a feat of astounding research and ventriloquism.

"[2] The novel tells the story of the final day in the life of a 75-year-old psychiatrist, Millard Salter, who runs the consult-liaison service at St. Dymphna's Hospital in New York City.

Salter's second wife has died a slow, painful death of cancer, so he volunteers with an underground organization that helps terminally-ill patients commit suicide.

[3] The Washington Post described the novel's protagonist as "man is full of life" and wrote that he "calls up comparisons to the late John Updike's visited and revisited character, Rabbit.