"I never stopped being astonished at Terry Dobson's passion, his happy ruthlessness, and his compassionate joy. Anything he asked me to do, I did, and I would have been glad to give him my car and my horse if he had asked."-Robert Bly, author of Iron John: A Book about Men; ; "Riki Moss debuts with a wonderfully original comic novel about art both fine and martial, about self-betrayal and redemption through love, beautifully written and full of memorable characters."-Michael Gruber, author of The Forgery of Venus and The Book of Air and Shadows; ; "Our fantasy of a martial aritst is usually of an exotic warrior: impeccably controlled, shifting between poles of cryptic wisdom and profound silence. Riki Moss gives us an only slightly fictionalized account of a real martial artist-a giant Falstaff of a man, his flaws as enormous as his gifts. How much more illumnating to read of a man who, rather than one of those blow-dried fighting sages, actually needed the teaching himself."-Ellis Amdur, author of Dueling with O-sensei; ; "Powerful, earth, funny, and spiritual."-Jane Pincus, co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves; ; Based on the life of unconventional aikido master Terry Dobson, this novel by his partner Riki Moss is the story of two souls meeting. In the tumultuous sixties, a desperate young man's life is saved through his discovery of aikido. Now, twenty-five years later, he returns to the wrekage of his ancestral home, worn in body and spirit. He ponders suicide, but a wild accident brings an unexpected spiritual romance into his life.; ; Equally profound and entertaining the story is told through two interwoven timelines: one, drawn from Dobson's own recorded memoirs, tracks his youthful odyssey through New York City, Japan, and Vermont; the other traces the unfolding relationship of his final years. The cast features a memorable assortment of seekers and gurus (real and fictional), spiritual dogs, performance artists, martial-arts masters, New Age healers, quirky parents, old lovers, counterculture celebrities, and the protagonist's own insightful renegade spirit.