If none is left who will pronounce judgment on such a life, if the Great Judge of All has given up judging and withdrawn to pare his nails, then he will pronounce it himself: a wasted chance.

When a bicycle accident causes photographer Paul Rayment to lose a leg, he must reexamine his life so far, and what remains of it. He falls in love with the nurse who tends to his needs—but the arrival of famed novelist Elizabeth Costello upends everything. Slow Man is an intricate novel about identity, memory and desire, from a contemporary master.