Nathan Glass

Nathan Glass is the novel’s narrator and one of its central characters. Nathan is in his sixties and was diagnosed with lung cancer several years prior to the events of the novel. He is also recently divorced from his wife, Edith. At the beginning of the narrative, Nathan’s lung cancer is in remission, but it may return, and he is still not sure if he has much longer to live. In the wake of his divorce, he has moved to Brooklyn, New York, to live out his retirement. He was always interested in reading and writing, but he made his living as an insurance salesman. In Brooklyn, he begins a writing project in which he attempts to record every embarrassing mistake and shameful blunder he can think of, either committed by himself or others. He calls this project the Book of Human Folly.

While in...