Alexander Bruno

Alexander Bruno is the protagonist of the novel. He is a professional backgammon player who travels the world and makes money playing against wealthy and overconfident backgammon enthusiasts. After a serious losing streak, Bruno collapses during a game in Berlin, and it is discovered that he has a cancer-like growth in his head. Because he has lost all his money in backgammon, he agrees to be flown home to Berkeley—which he has not visited in 30 years—by his high school acquaintance Keith Stolarsky, who also pays for the necessary medical procedures.

Over the course of the novel, the sophisticated persona that Bruno created in his youth is steadily worn away by his circumstances and the garish, commercialized environment of Berkeley. The removal of the cancer-like growth appears to result in the return of telepathic powers that Bruno had in his youth, but which he forcibly blocked...