-- One of Nicholas Mosley's most compelling and provocative novels, The Hesperides Tree draws on the themes explored in his Catastrophe Practice Series -- the importance of myth and coincidence in our lives. A young man frustrated by the inability of either of his two chosen disciplines -- biology and English -- to articulate a complete view of the world leaves his university and embarks upon a quest to find the girl he fell in love with years before, and to understand the relationship among things. His journey leads him to a deserted island -- home to a species of rapidly evolving birds -- that may be the mythical Garden of the Hesperides, where the Tree of Life is thought to be.