"In the mid-19th century, the itinerant Vlad D'Agostino arrives in New York City after a long stay in Japan, bringing with him a samurai mask and a terminal case of tuberculosis. In Manhattan, he learns of an innovative doctor who claims to have found a treatment for the disease using 'alpine air, ' but Vlad will have to travel to the physician's clinic in the Rocky Mountains, in a place known as Never Summer.... On his quest to save himself and prolong his life, he inadvertently makes discoveries about his traumatic past--and about how to live more fully in the present.... Vlad is a thoughtful hero, and Blaine seems just as interested in evoking Herman Melville's work as he is Zane Grey's. Adventure fans of all stripes will find something compelling in the tragic, mysterious protagonist. An original, philosophically minded Western adventure." -- Kirkus Reviews